Australia's Workplace of the Future

Australia’s Workplace – Future reliable technology infrastructure With the rollout of Australia’s broadband network that boasts speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps), this will undoubtedly impact industries emerging and existing now and to the future. This has the potential to influence how businesses transact and operate, as well as how we work and go through our daily lives thus opening new opportunities than ever before. If anything, having reliable technology infrastructure should afford us more options and increased flexibility in our day-to-day. Increasing trend of working from home One of the clear benefits of high-speed broadband is enabling ease of use of applications such as cloud computing, video conferencing and realtime collaboration for work purposes. This would implicate that skilled workers will be able to work on jobs that is traditionally in cities, regardless of where they live. This concept of teleworking provides jobs situated in capital cities to be relocated to regional communities, thus boosting the economy of remote areas. In a report commissioned by IBM, industries most closely impacted by the work-from-home phenomenon include the following: finance and insurance services; education; professional and technical services, amongst others. In the same report, it was noted that as much as one in four people in the workforce could be working from home in some capacity by 2050. In light of the fact that some companies in the financial services area are gradually offering the work from home option to provide flexibility, it is not unimaginable for this to trickle down to other industries. Of outputs and not inputs Given the teleworking trend, there is a view that employees in a strict sense will diminish as workers effectively act as their own businesses. Similar to tasks that are outsourced, workers will be judged less by the hours they put, but by the final outcome that they produce. This would mean that there could be a gradual shift from workers being employees per se, towards them being businesses required to negotiate and operate on their own. This is akin to an accountant whose job it is to market its services, and effectively maintain its own client base at its own choosing. Having new technology can impact industries and influence our daily activities, perhaps even causing a degree of apprehension for the change. But undoubtedly, for us as a nation to keep pace at a global stage, measures and initiatives need to be taken to ensure that we can remain competitive for years and decades to come.

Fibre optic cables are a proven technology that has been around for nearly three decades. And yet it has become a recurring topic amidst the broadband rollout. In simple terms, fibre optics are thin strands of glass around the same diameter of a human hair. Fibre optics are grouped into bundles that comprise the optical cable, and are utilised to transmit light signals over long distances. These light signals carry information such as voice and video that are transferred at fast speeds. Outperforming copper cables of old The Internet for some time has utilised fibre optic cables to carry massive quantities of data to some extent. However, for a sizeable portion of the network, much of the Internet still use copper lines—the same lines used predominantly for telephone calls. By its nature, copper cables generally have lower capacity in transmitting data. Rod Tucker, from IBES at the University of Melbourne, has reiterated that recent engineering breakthroughs and technological developments have maximized the capacity of copper, yet its speed is still only a fraction of what can be achieved by using optic fibre. In addition, the speed achieved by using copper can be affected if water gets into the cables—say through the occasional flood or rain. Future-proofing anatomy Fibre it appears has a handful of attributes that make it more superior than copper moving forward. For one, copper is delicate in that it has a 25-pound pulling tension limit, which can reduce its speed capacity. Fibre, despite it being made of glass, is more malleable and has greater tolerance. This malleability provides it some headroom to be tweaked further, thereby potentially increasing its gigabit speeds into the future. Lastly, fibre is generally cheaper than copper. Telephone companies often utilise fibre than copper where possible, since it is more economical and has clear speed and distance advantages.

Anderson E-Series fibre optic cable can be used in both indoor and outdoor application, they are constructed from a low smoke zero halogen UV resistant black jacket and they are quite flexible, easy to bend around in buildings. The E-Series tight buffered 900um fibres are colour-coded, where they can be uniquely identified in a multi-core cable. Indoor/Outdoor cable is not suitable for direct burial unless it is used in an underground conduit. The low bend radius of the fibre makes it suitable for installing in riser shafts and under computer room floors. For more information Click Here to contact our sales team today!

There are 2 types of cables that are commonly used in Australia, Indoor/outdoor and Loose Tube. Both cables are designed to protect the optical fibres from being damaged during an installation or from environment surrounds. In order to choose the right cable for your appliaction, you need ask yourself; Where is the cable going to be stored? Is it going to be stored inconduit or direct burial? Anderson E-Series fibre optic cables are designed for use in short haul applications. The compact construction of this tight buffered cable makes it ideally suited for installation in limited conduit space. For more information, please see article on Anderson E-Series. Anderson L-Series fibre optic cables are designed to perform in harsh outdoor environment, ideal for direct burial in the ground without conduit. Loose tube cable has water blocking features and has a higher tensile load than standard indoor/outdoor cable. The internal water-blocking protection of the cable core is achieved by surrounding it with a dry water-swellable yarn. The cable has a central strength member to stop over bending during installations. Both E-Series and L-Series fibre optic cables are available in OS1 Singlemode, OM1 Multimode, and OM3 Multimode. As a standrad, we have a core count ranging from 2 – 24. Higher core counts are available upon request. For more information please contact our sales team today – Click Here