FROM NY TIMES:
<<< "Once-Bright Future of Optical Fiber Dims"
but as the story goes it just replicates what we already know, especially the FTTC/FTTH and the final mile aspect where our companies shine:
"In the last two years, 100 million miles of optical fiber — more than enough to reach the sun — were laid around the world as companies spent $35 billion to build Internet-inspired communications networks. But
after a string of corporate bankruptcies, fears are spreading that it will be many years before these
grandiose systems are ever fully used.
There is a glut of capacity of high- speed, long-haul information pipelines, but a shortage of the high- speed,
local-access connections that consumers and businesses need to gain access to the Web. It is as if
superhighways stand nearly empty while traffic backs up at the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.
Few people have fast Internet connections, and prices are rising for those who do. Computer users with
common dial-up Internet connections find their Web browsers stalled, and people trying to make regular
phone calls complain increasingly of busy signals.
Meanwhile, investment in the communications industry, especially in fiber optic networks, has sharply
declined, leaving companies with fiber that may never be "lit," as commercially available wire is called. Only
5 percent of fiber in the ground is on, and lighting fiber can cost large corporate clients about $500 million
and 15 months, according to Salomon Smith Barney.
"There may be a significant amount of dark fiber in the ground, but it takes a lot more money to light fiber
than to lay it and even more to deliver it to the end user," Howard E. Janzen, head of Williams
Communications, said in a recent interview. "The challenges will force the flakes to drop out." "
nytimes.com;
Namaste!
Jim |
