Hair-thin glass wires used to transfer beams of infrared light containing information at high speeds

Wavelengths of light signals vary between 850 nano-meters and 1550 nano-meters.

Being in the infrared section of the EM spectrum, the frequency approximates from 430 GHz (gigahertz) to 300 THz (terahertz)

Because of infrared light's high frequency and short wavelength, the waves travelling through fibre optic cables have a lower energy than visible light, but more than microwaves

Can cause visual impairment if you look directly into a live wire; infrared light will burn your retna

Fiber optic communication can be used to encode infrared waves with audio-converted-digital messages (telephone calls)

Early devices resembling fibre optic communication were created in the late 1800's (Bell's Photophone), but the original product known as fibre optics was created in 1970 by Corning Glass Works after a proposal in 1966 by Charles K. Kao and George Hockham

An infrared wave is encoded with information through its amplitude, the wave is then cut up and sent through the cable. The amplitude of the sections is determined and interpreted as binary to communicate information.

Allows for high speed communication around the globe through cables the size of a human hair, revolutionizing information transfer for social and corporate needs.

Can only hold a limited amount of information; luckily, none of our cables have reached that yet.
Beams attenuate over time due to impurities in the glass, an uneven interface with the surrounding medium, and the rays making up the beam reflecting at slightly different intervals