Good-old Wall Street (via stock photography)
In an effort to shave milliseconds off communications time, stock traders are turning to microwaves to transmit their information instead of currently used fiber optic cables. Apparently, every millisecond is valuable in the stock market trading. Therefore, several companies have submitted applications to the Federal Communications Commission to build microwave relay towers between New York and Chicago.
Both microwaves and infrared light travel at the speed of light within a vacuum. However, the infrared light in fiber optic cables travel through a glass medium which slows light to about two thirds of its speed, or 200,000,000 m/s. On the other hand, electromagnetic waves traveling through air get slowed down only slightly. The change will allow the telecommunications to reach Chicago in 4.25 milliseconds, 2.3 milliseconds less than fiber optic cables. If the trend catches on and more cities install microwave relay towers, millions of dollars worth of fiber optic cables may become obsolete. It may be just me, but something seems wrong about stock traders being able to profit by shaving two milliseconds off of telecommunications time.
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