The days of accessing the internet using an analogue (“dial-up”) modem or ISDN link are long gone for most parts of the Taunus region, with DSL (“broadband”) lines of at least 1MBit/s becoming the norm over the past 10 years and speeds in Oberursel of 25MBit/s available in some areas.

Now the town is preparing to enter the next phase of high-speed internet with the introduction of fibre-optic connections.

Current DSL works over the more traditional copper wires that have been used for telephone cables for over a hundred years, but this system suffers from the fact that the further away from the exchange you live, the slower the reliable line speed is.

This can be clearly demonstrated along the Hohemarkstraße in Oberursel where the line speed degrades from 25MBit/s at the Lahnstraße, near the telephone exchange, to 1MBit/s at the Hohemark, whereby this is only the speed to receive data, sending data is typically about 1/8 of that speed.

Fibre optic cables do not suffer from the same fate, and typically offer speeds of  up to 200MBit/s to receive data and 100MBit/s to send it.

So the announcement several months ago that parts of Oberursel’s town centre and the northern end would be upgraded to fibre optic lines caused a lot of excitement. [Read more…]