Fiber-Optic lines on fast track

Fri May 30, 7:28 AM ET

Kevin Maney USA TODAY

After more than a decade of promises, the nation's biggest telecommunications companies took a major step Thursday toward building super-fast fiber-optic lines directly to homes.


These lines would carry data 100 times faster than today's cable modems or DSL lines.


Regional phone giants SBC Communications, Verizon Communications and BellSouth announced that they had agreed on standards for so-called fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) equipment and sent a letter to makers of telecom equipment asking for bids.


FTTP would be ''the most fundamental and important enhancement to telecommunications since wireless networks were built,'' said Matt Davis, analyst at market researcher Yankee Group.


Though broadband will be in about 30% of U.S. households by the end of this year, fiber will drive more dramatic capabilities into homes by delivering lightning-speed Internet, interactive games, movies on demand, phone calls and high-definition TV.


By acting in concert, the phone companies can place massive orders and demand lower prices. Because the three companies have so much clout, the rest of the industry will probably adopt the same standards, creating even greater economies of scale.


As the cost drops, telecom companies will first put fiber into new homes instead of traditional copper lines. So far, fiber lines go into only 37,000 U.S. homes. Trials could begin in next year, said Ken Twist of telecom analyst RHK. Fiber to new homes won't become common until later this decade.


Replacing existing copper lines with fiber will take longer because that requires digging up streets. ''We're not going to wake up one day with the entire network replaced by fiber,'' said Blaik Kirby of consulting group Adventis.


Because it will take so long, consumers shouldn't expect it to affect their broadband prices for years.


A similar move in 1996 jump-started DSL. Four regional Bells agreed on a standard. ''It had a huge changing impact on the market,'' said Danny Briere of analysis firm Telechoice.

funny thing is, technically, it's already way out of date!

"These lines would carry data 100 times faster than today's cable modems or DSL lines."

a friend of mine leads a team at MIT that has been working on a fast data transmission system for the past few years. sponsored by the US military (just like the original "internet"). they already have a prototype network running and it's 1000 (yes, onethousand) times faster than your avarage T1 ...

can't wait for THAT line at home
Andy

which is roughly a gigabit ethernet connection, and is already being used in metropolitan areas (yipes in SF is one provider). of course it's not $49.95 a month.

anyways, you're not going to be able to take advantage of that kind of bandwidth unless you have a couple hundred PC's in your house using the service at the same time.

BWAHAHAHA,

I'm REALLY not going to pull the football away this time, Charlie Brown.

More unreal stuff. RHK is as much a bunch of morons as the rest of us.
Right up to the time when everything telecom collapsed, they were
still predicting massive growth. All the telecom suppliers are bankrupt
or on life support, and the carriers are not going to pre-pay for pie-in-
the-sky services that won't sell, so this will die just like HFC in the
early 90's.
Mark S.
'70 914-6