My advocacy for 'fiber everywhere' is a bit parochial in that the company that invented it (and still supplies much of it) is a mere 12 miles due west of where I sit at the moment.
Ironically, my rural location was the first of 4 test markets for cable broadband, I had cable literally before it was 'available.' But we are just now getting basic fiber infrastructure in the area.
The local fortune 500 company of course had their own fiber network, including connections to trunk lines buried along railroad tracks, but local ISPs took years to get off their T3's. Local demand didn't justify any investment.
That's changed in the last 5 or so years at the hub, and in just the last few weeks we finally have the contractors out hitting the poles, running fiber throughout the network.
Apparently it's coming up my road, they set up the "men at work" sign in front of my home yesterday, yea! I live 4 miles from the center of town, yet I'm squarely in the middle of farmland. Hardly a thriving metropolis.
So I imagine it'll still be a long while before we get the fiber into the home. I would guess recent fiber deployment is aimed more at that wireless haul back. It's rather mountainous around here, it takes a lot of towers to provide even basic coverage. And forget 4G... unless that's why the fiber is going up now. (one can hope)
We’re just beginning to imagine what the next wave of broadband applications will look like and how they’ll change our world – from automated and personalized service to augmented intelligence. However, none of these new applications are going to come to light if we don’t provide the infrastructure support they need. Here are three critical elements for the future of broadband.
More fiber
This one may seem like a no-brainer, but there are still skeptics who argue we could end up in other another situation of over-supply like the one we had in the late nineties. There’s also an odd concern that possible new regulations around high-frequency trading – an application that chews up bandwidth like cookie monster used to gobble up cookies – could dampen fiber demand.
However, the reality is we have plenty of reasons to continue investing in fiber build-outs. Bigger broadband enables greater innovation. Plus we need fiber backhaul to support growing mobile networks. And, it turns out that old fiber may not cut it for the new broadband needs we have today. In a fascinating article on TMCnet, Rich Tehrani details a conversation he had with executives of Allied Fiber who explained to him that older fiber isn’t as efficient as the new stuff available today. If you think about it, your computer and mobile phone need regular upgrades. So do fiber networks.
Seamless network transitions
The advent of broadband gave us always-on connectivity, but it didn’t give us the inherent ability to switch easily from one always-on network to another. The more we expect to be always connected, the more those seamless network handoffs will become important. Mobile carriers are focused heavily on network transitions, particularly as they upgrade 2G and 3G networks to new 4G. However, transitions between Wi-Fi networks are also getting more attention today.
The Wi-Fi Alliance announced the Passpoint program in February, which will start certifying devices later this year to activate Wi-Fi connections automatically in public hotspots. I spoke to Kelly Davis-Felner from the Wi-Fi Alliance last week, and she said that with Passpoint, Wi-Fi connectivity could literally emulate a cellular experience in areas where hotspot density is high. The experience wouldn’t initially be high-performance enough to continue a phone call or a video stream across Wi-Fi network hops, but we could get to that point in another three or four years. Then imagine what the new always-on world could look like.
Lower latency
Big fat pipes are great, but they’re a lot better when they come with low-latency Internet service. Stacey Higginbotham posted at GigaOM today on the advantages of low-latency broadband, not just for the financial markets, but for consumers as well. Low latency makes connections more instantaneous. It can give us video chats that don’t stutter, get us faster information when we’re deciding which nearby restaurant to choose, and trigger new personalized services when we come within range of a business, doctor’s office, or vending machine.
The bottom line with all of these network elements is that they will make the broadband we have today better, while without them, the road to the future will be slower, more indirect, and far less satisfying.
And who wants that?
Image credit: dsearls on Flickr
