Fiber optic cables are a superior cable solution to copper in almost every way. For starters, the performance, or maximum data rate they can support is so much greater than anything copper cables can achieve. Where copper cables ar. Fiber optic cables are a superior cable solution to copper in almost every way. For starters, the performance, or maximum data rate they can support is so much greater than anything copper cables can achieve. Where copper cables are limited to around 10 Gigabits per second in the absolute best case scenario, fiber optic cables can manage as much as. Fiber optic and copper cables are built with very different materials, and as such are used in different circumstances for different tasks. Fiber optic cables are built with a silica glass fiber core, about the width of a human hair. It transmits data via light, by allowing it to bounce back and forth down the length of the glass core, while a glas. In the fiber vs copper cables head to head, there aren't many metrics that copper comes out on top. It's not going to win a face off on performance, distance, resistance to EMI, or physical durability, but there are some areas where copper still holds a significant advantage. The first is cost. While the price per foot of fiber optic cabling has co. As much as the fiber vs. copper cable debate may seem settled at this point, that's not to say that copper cables can't still be useful. If you're building a home network, or any network where the necessary speeds aren't greater than 10 Gigabit per second, then copper patch cables are perfectly viable. You can even mitigate the problems with copper.