Episode Details

We tend to think of fibre optic internet as cutting-edge consumer tech, but the reality is that much of the glass in the ground has been carrying data for decades. This episode explores a provocative hypothetical: what would happen if we shut down all copper and coax tomorrow and moved everyone to fibre? The answer reveals something surprising about the headroom in existing infrastructure, the economics of digging trenches, and the physical limits of light transmission. From pandemic-era genomic data flown across oceans on cargo planes to the Square Kilometre Array telescope generating 160 terabytes per second, we examine why fibre isn't just a consumer upgrade — it's the backbone that makes modern science and global collaboration possible. We also look at the gap between deployment claims and actual coverage, and why the companies laying fibre aren't always reliable narrators about who's really connected. Episode #527983 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/527983