What is the last mile?

In the telecommunications context, the last mile usually concerns the final infrastructure used to provide various services to the customer. A number of different industries use the term to refer to items such as telephone service, cable and internet. This last leg can consist of hard cable systems such as telephone wires, cable or fiber optics, or may include some wireless components. It is not uncommon for the last mile to be much longer than one mile in rural areas, because the term concerns concept and not at physical distance. Areas that use the metric system may tend to use the term last kilometer and the term first mile or kilometer can refer to essentially the same thing. In the case of large enterprises, the last mile for the telephone service will often include a special trunk line that is capable of transmitting telephone conversations at once. These are often vulnerable damage from growing undergroundwater or from digging.

Many telecommunications companies use the optical fiber in its infrastructures, although the last mile can still be composed of copper twisted pairs. Especially Internet speeds can be disturbed if the fiber optics are not present in the last mile. Increased bandwidth offered by optical fiber can also allow additional services such as digital TV for which twisted vapors cannot be used.

When the last stage of service infrastructure contains a wireless component, it can be referred to as a mobile mile. Systems like this can be useful in rural areas where the last kilometer sometimes requires a significant investment in infrastructure to operate a relatively limited number of potential customers. Wireless components may suffer from a poor signal ratio to noise, potentiasis reduces their efficiency. To such systems can be involvedENY various technologies, including Wi-Fi ™, mobile networks and radio waves.

There are other alternatives to solid and wireless infrastructure. Worldwide interoperability for access to the microwave (Wimax ™) is a technology that can replace traditional systems of the latest mile and provide broadband Internet connection in limited areas. Another alternative is the broadband connection via power line (BPL). BPL uses the existing infrastructure in the form of power lines to provide broadband services. Although it has the advantage that it does not require the creation of another costly infrastructure, it may be disturbed by some other broadcast spectral devices such as devices used by amateur radio operators.