gg, we've been discussing fiberoptics for years over here:
Subject 34780
On a national basis, the argument for fiber is the infrastructure argument. That is, it's an enabler just like good highways, or water systems.
Sweden, Japan and South Korea (among others) have advanced fibre systems and great throughput. Australia is beginning to implement a national fiber network. That enables things like real-time distance education (bring the education to the people instead of busing them), remote medical diagnosis, e-government (because everyone is connected) as well as superior video and internet experiences. Eventually all TV and radio can be on fiber -- hundreds of channels and stations, from all over the world. There's enough throughput on one home hookup for 4 or 5 people to use the same connection at the same time, while watching TV too.
There are dozens of municipalities supporting local fiber initiatives in the 'States. They're doing it themselves, on their own nickel. Why? Because it attracts business. It breaks them away from local incumbent monopolies, giving them lower rates and new choices for telecomms. These ventures are paying off the cost over years, and still getting lower rates.
Even the UK is slowly migrating to all-fiber. It will take years, but they've started. Ditto the Netherlands, Iceland and more.
It's costly to run fiber, but in the long run cheaper per-bit than anything else. Trenching is the big cost, but when you trench, you leave dark fiber (unlit), and room to pull more, thus assuring additional capacity without much additional cost. Unlike copper fiber is as close as we can come to future-proof. It's insensitive to interference, doesn't corrode, requires minimal maintenance and has far greater throughput than alternatives. It doesn't "drop off" at a distance, like DSL. Once the lines are laid, hooking up to your home has become almost DIY. In fact some jurisdictions have DIY kits - just snap-and-click connectors.
Fiberoptics has some major benefits. If it wasn't for the stranglehold of monopolies and incumbents in North America, we could be enjoying them just like Sweden, South Korea and Japan.
Jim |
