The concept behind fiber optics is relatively simple. Just take a flashlight and shine it through one end of a transparent tube of glass or plastic in a dark room. Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that.
The big challenge is converting voice, data or video electrons generated by computers and other devices into bits of light called photons, then transmitting those photons over long distances and converting them back into electrons in less time than it takes to blink an eye. An even bigger challenge is mass-producing the components that make it possible to do all that with speed, precision and accuracy.