Fiber and Father Christmas

We live in a technological age, where superfast communications are essential to both companies and consumers. And that’s especially true if you’re the most seasonal businessman of them all – Father Christmas.

With all those letters to read, children to monitor and presents to make (and deliver), Father Christmas has got a lot do in a very short space of time, and a lot of data and information to cope with.

Essentially there are three areas where fibre networks can help:

Fiber to the North Pole (FTTNP): Increasingly children are emailing what they’d like rather than writing letters and sticking it up the nearest chimney. So Father Christmas needs high speed fiber broadband to the North Pole to cope with the volume of requests. This also helps his elves to report back via video on who’s been good and who’s been bad in real-time from all around the world.

Fiber to the Workshop (FTTW): Managing a complex operation that builds millions of presents in a really short time requires an incredibly efficient manufacturing process. Fiber around Father Christmas’s workshop is vital to get the plans of toys to machines, monitor production and control the supply chain all the way to despatch.

Fiber to the Sleigh (FTTS): Like other modern, high end vehicles, communications are an integral part of Father Christmas’ sleigh. Operating in the toughest conditions, with wind, snow and sub zero temperatures when flying and a whole range of climates when delivering, it requires advanced electronics to control steering, monitor reindeer performance and of course navigate to the next delivery point. Fiber is the perfect way of linking all these systems together and distributing data around the sleigh – as well as plugging Father Christmas into the internet to stream music while he travels.

Obviously in all three of these areas, protecting the fragile fiber optic networks is key to preventing disruption to Father Christmas’ communications. Protective cable needs to be able to cope with extreme temperatures (from Arctic cold to tropical heat), be light enough not to tire out the reindeer, flexible enough to fit into a remarkably cramped sled and tough enough to cope with being accidentally nibbled by Rudolf. While we can’t name names, we’re proud to say we did recently supply multiple reels of our Miniflex protective cable to a gentleman at the North Pole………Hopefully, if people have been good, they’ll benefit from our technology on Christmas morning!

Image from Loozrboy