Plugged in: How our fibre network makes your connection better

You might ask “Why should I care? A cable, is a cable, is a cable; who cares who owns it?”. 

We get it, not everyone is a network nerd like us. But a bespoke fibre network can help connections be faster, more resilient, and go where people need them most. Read on to find out how and learn some fun fibre facts along the way!  

Why doesn’t everyone do it? 

Having your own fibre network has heaps of upsides: you’re able to lay it where you like (with the right permits) and you don’t need to compete with other providers for bandwidth, allowing speeds to be as fast as possible.  

But, it’s expensive and time consuming to do, and beyond the reach (or interest) of a lot of service providers.  

Picture this: when running fibre throughout a metropolitan area like Melbourne or Sydney, real estate is tight. Carving out space for your own network, let alone for necessary infrastructure like a fibre pit, can be tough. Pits are the spaces in the ground covered by manholes for technicians to perform maintenance or run new fibre through pipes. Finding a free patch of pavement that isn’t already full of pipes, foundations, or other cables, is like striking gold! 

Assuming you have found a potential spot, often local councils aren’t too eager for you to dig up the pavement. Some places have ornate stonework, which require special permits and craftmanship to restore it to the exact state it was in once the work is complete. Better have a good stonemason on speed dial!  

Most of the pit coverings you see in the street are marked with a Telstra logo. This is because, historically, Telstra has had a large copper duct network that covers most of Australia. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will use this network of ducts and pipes to run their own fibre cable.  

Next time you’re walking down the street and spot a Telstra pit cover, look around; you’ll probably see a lot of pits from other service providers nearby. You’re welcome for the new eye-spy game.  

If you’re interested in renting space within Telstra’s pits, ducts, and conduits, these rentals are charged per metre, which adds up quickly in a country as big as Australia! This is usually the reason networks grow scarce in regional or rural areas.  

Why owning fibre is worth it  

The best part of laying our own fibre is control over where it goes! We can lay cable more directly - like straight to our data centres without needing to route through detours that might cause congestion.  

Dark Fibre 

While it sounds slightly villainous, Dark Fibre simply refers to private fibre networks – predominantly used by large enterprises to guarantee speed, security, and bandwidth on their connections. To make sure we have the right kind of fibre to the people who need it, laying our own fibre allows us to run ‘Dark Fibre’ to businesses or between data centres.  

Fun fact: it’s called “dark” fibre because when it’s not in use, it becomes unlit. Dark Fibre is the same as regular fibre but is often reserved for just one company or customer, so there aren't other people using the bandwidth of the fibre at the same time. Exclusive! 

Fibre rings 

If Dark Fibre is only available to those who purchase it, how does Aussie’s fibre network benefit everyone on our network?  

One of the great and unique features of our network is our ability to monitor it for breaks precisely and fixing the issue as soon as possible.

We do this by spotting when a particular part of the network loses light or degrades, using kilometres-long rings of fibre in central areas around the country. These rings allow the team to isolate where in the network the issue is and dispatch a team to replace the length of fibre.  

Meanwhile, our system will re-route traffic automatically to avoid interruptions in service if possible. This often happens long before customers even notice a change in their service.  

That said, there are some limits, like with Dark Fibre. To monitor Dark Fibre, we’d need to send light through it, so it wouldn’t be dark anymore! 

Bend-proofing 

Speaking of rings, bending a fibre cable is quite a tricky task. Unless you’re a glass blower, generally glass is... inflexible. Surprise, surprise! 

When running fibre in busy areas, we often splice 2 cables together at key junctions - like street corners - so we can connect even more cables from different directions in the future. This is useful when running fibre along grid-like streets, but it can cause a small amount of signal loss, which adds up over distance. Light can refract in unintended ways when bouncing through a splice or around curves.   

In high-density, central areas, we’ve invested in ‘bend-insensitive’ fibre. These parts of our network often manage the most traffic and are also at risk of the most development and damage.  

‘Bend-insensitive’ cables have an extra layer of glass around the central core that has a lower refractive index, meaning light bends more gently around it. This guides the angled beams of light back to the centre of the cable, reducing signal loss and increasing flexibility!  

Preventing breaks in fibre not only prevents customer connections from dropping but also means our cables need to be replaced less frequently.  

Resilience through diversification 

It sounds like a primary school motto, but the advantages of resilience can’t be overstated. Designing our own fibre network means we can add more paths to connect our residential customers. Business fibre customers with their own links or Dark Fibre customers can also order extra links to diversify their connection. 

For residential customers, should one of our fibre paths go down, there should be another nearby to replace it. Our network will move around the fibre break to keep customers online as much as possible. If all else fails, we can also revert to the Telstra network that we rent from. Diversity and redundancy save an incalculable amount of downtime and keep our customers online.  

To illustrate the lengths we’ll go to protect our network, here’s a fun fact: rats love the texture of fibre optic cable, the glass keeps their teeth sharp! While we appreciate most rats don’t have dental insurance, we don’t think our fibre network is the place to get a cleaning done. 

In at-risk areas, we’ve invested in rodent-proof cabling; the cable is reinforced to protect from biting, and the taste deters rats from trying again without causing any harm to the rodents.  

We hope this blog has given you your daily dose of fibre... and please don’t eat fibre optic cable – whether you’re a human or a rodent.