What is Dark Fiber? What does it look like? Does my business need Dark Fiber?
These are good questions that need to be examined as more and more organizations adopt dark fiber. The term ‘Dark fiber’ refers to fibers that are currently unused and therefore do not have electronics installed which would ‘light’ them. In order to future proof their network, service providers typically install more fibers that are 
currently necessary in order to prevent the need to overbuild in the future. The excess dark fiber can be leased by the service providers to organizations who have the capability of lighting the fiber and managing the connections. Dark fiber strands are the diameter of human hair and are bundled safely in a sheath with many other strands.
Dark fiber is capable of providing virtually unlimited bandwidth. Given the ability to rapidly scale bandwidth makes dark fiber a good solution for mirroring data centers. Another situation perfect for this fiber? Campus environments, where connectivity to multiple buildings and data center is necessary.
Dark fiber can be the right solution for many of today’s high-bandwidth enterprise connectivity needs, but make sure you go into it with a full understanding of its advantages and disadvantages. You’ll need in-house resources and expertise to manage your new Dark Fiber network.
When to buy it:
- When you need to rapidly scale bandwidth
- When you need to control network management
- When you need to manage technology evolution
- When you need to manage latency
Important Considerations:
- Longhaul dark fiber purchases
- Reliability
- Diversity
- Maintenance and repair
- Flexibility
Now What?
Contact FirstLight Fiber to design a fiber-based solution that meets your organization’s needs now and well into the future.
