A little Telecom 101 today.
I’ve been asked this question a few times recently, and like most telecom-lifers, I’ve made the mistake of assuming everyone knows:
Dark Fibre is a strand of fibre optic cable that has been installed between two locations but is not connected to a larger, Carrier network. It’s a private link that the user is required to “light up” with their own optical network gear. Its extremely secure and bandwidth throughput is only limited by the electronics attached to the ends of it.
In most cases, the user leases the strand of fibre from a Carrier on a long-term basis (usually 10 or more years) though larger operations (Hydro Utilities, Universities and Municipalities, for example) may self-install because they have the staff in-house and own the ‘Right-of-ways’, poles and underground conduit required to do so.
Most Carriers have stopped providing Dark Fibre for purely economic reasons; its more financially lucrative for them to sell managed or ‘lit’ services on their network. Fibre Optic Infrastructure is a finite resource; Carriers only install so many strands of fibre in their networks and know its costly and time-consuming to expand ‘fibre-counts’ along established routes.
When you sell a single-strand of Dark Fibre, that circuit carries one service. A single strand of fibre that is part of a Carrier’s managed or ‘lit’ network can carry multiple, bi-directional signals, increasing the capacity of that network ten-fold and most importantly, maximizing revenue. This is also why Dark Fibre is considered a Premium product – priced higher than a managed service and offered for longer term lengths.
FlexNetworks is pleased to offer Dark Fibre (FlexDark) connections, along with our other core products of Internet (FlexIP) and Ethernet Private Line (FlexNet), within our two operating territories of Saskatchewan and Ottawa.
To check feasibility and get a quote, please contact Sales@flexnetworks.ca.
