Managed IT Services, Low Voltage Cabling, Security Cameras, Business Telephones, Access Controls

We just finished a job that customer requested that we install OM3 fiber (multi-mode 50 micron plenum) to tie their two suites together.  After we did a free site survey, we recommended that they go with Cat 6 or Cat 6A as the distant was under 200 feet.  Their have been lots of noise regarding Fiber and how fast it can be.  Fiber indeed can be much faster than Ethernet cable, however in my opinion, I don’t think fiber is the first thing that I would recommend due to the cost of equipment and labor involve.  Dollar for dollar with no doubt fiber sometimes can be the cheapest transport medium for data, but not necessary true all the time.  In this case for instant, Fiber would cost probably 3 times more than Ethernet due to the cost of labor and extra equipment require.  To do fiber correctly, typically you will need two housing on each side to protect the hair size strand as fiber can be very fragile, especially on the terminated ends.  Typically when we run fiber, we have to run an orange conduit to help protect the fiber.  I’m not sure why, but I typically see mainly orange conduit for fiber.  I think it may be back then 62.5 was the most common fiber use to tie short distant suites and buildings together and 62.5 was normally orange.  Regardless, I’ve seen other single mode fiber and OM3 (normally aqua) also enclosed in orange conduit, I think it may be because there are more supply of orange conduit available then other colors.  Wow, I got side track…… back to my point, depending on the distant and or applications, there are reasons why we still have CAT cables vs Fibers, so choose them wisely.