FTTH, or fiber to the home, is one of the acronyms that long time High Speed Experts readers know well, and new readers can find plenty of FTTH info on our site and on other sites as well. While the reasons behind the high desirability of fiber will be briefly covered again in a moment, the good news is that the latest reports about FTTH availability are promising. According to these admittedly dated reports, approximately 16% of all American households are technically capable of receiving some form of fiber optic broadband service.
The information comes from a recent FTTH Council report, but there are some interesting facts for those that read between the lines. These facts will also be covered in detail, but first it is time to briefly recap the core reasons why fiber optics are the way of the future.
A Reminder Why Fiber Is So Desirable
Fiber optics have several key advantages over metal wires when it comes to being used to transmit data. Without getting too technical, the performance limitations involved with fiber optics are substantial, and there simply is no cost-effective way to deploy high performance wire-based broadband networks that compete favorably with fiber optic alternatives. The only reason why so many consumers are still served by metal wire-based broadband systems has more to do with the nuances of history; fiber is new, and metal wires are nearly approaching the point where they could be called antiques by any and all standards. The long and short is that the techniques required to scale metal-wire based broadband performance require substantially more money than those required to bring fiber directly to the homes and businesses of consumers and businesses alike.
So What Is In the Report?
The report contains some very interesting information, but the actual numbers seem very conservative. The reason for that is the fact that most of the information contained in the report is nearly a year old, and fiber optic based broadband systems have made significant headway in the interim period. Smaller providers such as NuVu, medium sized networks such as UTOPIA NET, and large-scale FTTH providers such as Verizon’s FiOS system are all making significant progress. Furthermore, major networks have until recently been using metal wires for a ‘last mile’ solution on top of a fiber optic backbone have been revising their plans and starting to offer FTTH options in select areas.
The result of all this old information? The information in the report is outdated, but still quite flattering. Approximately 16% of all American households are currently within reach of a fiber optic broadband solution. In some cases, these households are simply within planned expansion zones that are still being marketed to as part of a pre-release advertising campaign. These exceptions are supposedly far from the rule, and the vast majority of these houses were believed to be fiber-ready. Being fiber-ready is certainly a good thing, and the fact that information is outdated probably gives reason for hope that a much higher percentage of homes are fiber-ready at this time. Perhaps in another year that will become clear.
Why is the Information Outdated?
As mentioned many times so far, the fact of the matter is that the report issued by the FTTH Council is outdated. The obvious question to ask would be something along the lines of ‘why is the report so outdated?’ The answer probably has to do with a lot of fact checking, something that marketing types and even those responsible for allegedly honest prospectus information might be a little dishonest with. Thus, any information gathered had to be verified in multiple ways in order to ensure that it was actually valid. The report also outlines several other important facts, such as how many households are actually taking advantage of their fiber optic opportunities. Sadly, that figure was approximately 4,422,000 as of March ’09. This means that a year ago there were 11,000,000+ households that were going without fiber optic based broadband connections that were available to them.
Are You Missing Out?
The big question is: with over eleven million households failing to take advantage of fiber optic connections just a year ago, are you one of those people? It is difficult to say, but the only way to find out is to start checking with local service providers.
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