Dark fibre

A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunication infrastructure. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider. A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunication infrastructure. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider. Much of the cost of installing cables is in the civil engineering work required. This includes planning and routing, obtaining permissions, creating ducts and channels for the cables, and finally installation and connection. This work usually accounts for most of the cost of developing fibre networks. For example, in Amsterdam's citywide installation of a fibre network, roughly 80% of the costs involved were labour, with only 10% being fibre. It therefore makes sense to plan for, and install, significantly more fibre than is needed for current demand, to provide for future expansion and provide for network redundancy in case any of the cables fail.