Fiber Optics Takes the Long Way Home

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 12:20:59 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>

[Note:  This item comes from reader Jack Powers.  DLH]

At 9:59 -0800 12/31/03, Jack Powers wrote:
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 09:59:24 -0800
Subject: Fiber Optics Takes the Long Way Home
From: Jack Powers <jack () cryptnet org>
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>

> Fiber Optics Takes the Long Way Home
>
> Despite decades of experiments, big telecom companies are moving ever so 
> sluggishly to extend fiber optics to individual residences.
>
> By Jeff Hecht
>                December 31, 2003
>
>     A strange chasm is opening up across the landscape of home 
> telecommunications. On one side, bold visionaries are bringing the 
> tremendous information-carrying capacity of optical fibers all the way to 
> homes. On the other side, stodgy and stingy corporations are clinging to 
> aging copper wires, claiming that homes don't really need fiber's 
> bandwidth-and that fiber is too expensive anyway. The reluctance of the 
> telecom companies bodes badly for the future.
<...>
> That record raises a very troubling question-are today's giant 
> stockholder-owned communications companies incapable of the massive 
> investment needed to build a new network? Are they limited to 
> nickel-and-dime patches until aging infrastructure falls apart because 
> managers don't dare to tell Wall Street they need to spend on long-term 
> rebuilding? The mega-corporations that operate today's networks are not 
> the same ones that built them. They know how to milk the old cash machine, 
> but there is distressingly little evidence that they are capable of 
> building a new one to meet tomorrow's needs. I hope they can prove me wrong.

<http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_hecht123103.asp>

Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/