What advantages does Fiber-optic communication have over electrical transmission?

Compared to copper wire, fiberoptics can handle many times as many calls and are less susceptible to electromagnetic interference.

Why? Copper wire can handle frequencies in the Megahertz range; for the sake of simplicity, let's call that 200 million Hertz. Fiber optics uses light in the deep infrared, which typically has a frequency of about 200 trillion Hertz (cycles per second). ("Mega" means million)

The more frequency, the greater the "bandwidth" and the more information that can be carried. To put it simply, 200 million Hertz of copper wire can be divided into 200 separate frequencies of one million hertz each, whereas 200 trillion Hertz of fiber optics can be divided into 200 million separate frequencies of one million each! This means that fiber optics can carry much more signals than copper wire, even though the difference isn't that great in practice.

And what about electromagnetic interference? An incoming EM wave has the power to significantly change the strength of the signal in copper wire, either completely eliminating it or reducing it, which is extremely dangerous for airplanes.

Since fiber optics uses digital pulses, the signal's strength is less crucial as long as it can still be detected.

Advantages of fiber-optic communication over electrical transmission include higher bandwidth, lower signal loss over long distances, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and lighter weight.