Copper is the most used cabling solution in the market at the moment due to its ease of use and its price. Even the equipment is substantially cheaper to buy than other means of transmission. Copper cabling utilizes a single or multiple strands of copper to transmit data from one end to the other. Copper is broken up amongst several different categories each with their own set of improvements and flaws ranging from difficulty of installation to cost. The lower the category the more prone to interference there is like EMI’s and RFI’s. Electromagnetic interference from other cables in the location like power cords or other data connections. And RFI Radio frequency spectrum interference although the higher categories like Cat 7 are less prone to such interference a coper cabling solution is not 100 percent protected from such external interferences. Copper does have some limitations in how long a data signal can be sent without it becoming lost or the signal becoming too weak to make a proper connection which is around the 1000 feet or 305 meter range.
Fiber optic on the other hand is much more expensive and as such so are the tools used for installation. Fiber optic is compiled of a core which can resemble glass in its form and a laser or diode that emits a light from one end to another enabling data transmission. Fiber is the best solution in speed and range that data can be transmitted. There are two different types of fiber optic cabling one being multi-mode and the other being single-mode. Each with their own sets of differences. Single mode is a more expensive solution as the actual core itself is much smaller in diameter than multimode and due to this fact it has a much more precise connectivity. Multimode is far less inexpensive than single mode as it uses a much larger diameter core for its transmissions and as such the tools to make connections are more cheaper to buy as it is much more easier to manipulate the core. One major disadvantage there is in using multi-mode over single is that it is prone to multimode distortion due to the fact that the signal have more area to bounce around in the core and as such may have less range than single mode most fiber optic connections can be transmited over a 80+ km.
Both cabling solutions being copper or fiber have their own disadvantages and advantages over one another. One major disadvantage from using fiber over copper is the price as copper is relatively much cheaper than any of the two types of fiber. Copper cabling is much more prone to signal manipulation in security issues as it is very easy to tap in and steal the data whereas fiber is much safer due to its form of transmission. Fiber optic being able to use light over its core if anyone is to try and manipulate the signal it will give much faster warning that something is wrong in between connections than copper. Fiber is less prone to interference than copper is at it uses a light to transmit data and as long as the cladding is intact there should be no such light interference whereas copper can be interfered by any type of radio or electromagnetic signals. The tools for copper installation as much more simpler and cheaper than fiber installation tools so this can also be looked at as an advantage to copper over fiber. At the end of the day context is what really matters as in some instances you will need to travel a longer range and may need fiber as it has the capability of transmitting over a father distance than copper does. As well as the data speed rates will be significantly faster using fiber over copper.