A key detail I found lacking in this article was the manufacturing cost difference. It mentions that it is more expensive, but no indication of how much more expensive.
A lot more expensive right now. But silica fiber manufacturing has been optimized like crazy for 50 years, so that's not a surprise.
From a high level, the preforms are a lot more complicated, and I imagine the draw process might be more unforgiving (in terms of size fluctuations of the cross-section), but I don't see anything that is going to be prohibitive or that will make the fiber itself 10x more expensive in the long run. Most of the cost of an undersea cable isn't in the silica anyway...
GlibMonkeyDeath|9 months ago
From a high level, the preforms are a lot more complicated, and I imagine the draw process might be more unforgiving (in terms of size fluctuations of the cross-section), but I don't see anything that is going to be prohibitive or that will make the fiber itself 10x more expensive in the long run. Most of the cost of an undersea cable isn't in the silica anyway...