Optical Fiber!
Information has been popping up more and more within Computer World, one of my favorite ezines. The intriguing research, feasibility studies and the financial projection of switching to optical fiber from copper cable has left me in nerdy anticipation-for a few years now.
Initial investment is mad expensive- but we all like new, fast stuff, so the return on investment should be pleasing to the compnay who decides to install it. However, it has to be a company who is able to strategically plan for such a grand scale venture. Money, labor, materials, knowledge management, IT, marketing.. are just a few facets of what goes into making this happen. I have been waiting for a company (other than AOL, Time Warner) to jump on this medium, for this area..and atlast, Verizon steps up.
Anyone using fiOS now?? How is it in comparison to DSL or cable?
excerpt from Buffalo News article, Verizon Replacing Copper Phone Lines with Strands of Glass" written by Peter Svensson.
Optical fiber - strands of glass 15 times thinner than a human hair - have been used by telecommunications companies over long-haul routes since the 1980s.
Now, Verizon Communications Inc., is making a big and expensive bet on replacing the network of copper wires that has provided phone service since the 19th century with fiber, giving it the capability to carry TV and super-fast Internet service in the bargain.
In the Buffalo area, phone company crew have begun installing fiber optic cables to homes in Hamburg, Orchard Park and West Seneca.
Lisa Donohue is happy with the service Verizon calls FiOS.
"With cable, the picture would stop. Or we'd have those digital things going," she says, gesturing to mimic the picture breaking up.
The family pays about $220 a month for TV, phone, high-speed Internet service and two cell phones, which she says is cheaper than what they were paying before, when they had cable.
"It comes as one bill, which is nice because I don't have to remember to pay four times," Donohue says.
Factors like that have made Verizon's FiOS TV a success in the few areas where it's available, judging by Verizon's data. It has said that 6.5 percent of households in Massapequa Park signed up for TV in the first three months after its launch on Jan. 24. That figure is disputed by Cablevision Systems Corp., the incumbent cable company, which said it had a net loss of less than 2 percent in the area.
Verizon has permission to sell TV service in about 80 communities in New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia. It has fiber available for phone and Internet service in many more - 3 million homes. Verizon doesn't say how many homes are connected, but analysis of a tally by research firm RVA LLC indicates that Verizon had about 400,000 homes connected as of April.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime project," said Paul Lacouture, Verizon's vice president of engineering and technology.
Chief among fiber's advantages is its almost unlimited capacity to carry information, which Verizon only nibbles at with its current system: It lights fiber to the home with just three laser beams, though the fiber can carry many more.
The single beam that carries video (the others carry data and telephone calls to and from the home) has more capacity than an entire coaxial cable of the kind used by cable companies.
In practical terms, that means better image quality, because the digital TV channels don't need to be degraded to save bandwidth.
Fiber provides almost limitless Internet connection speeds. With current technology, Verizon could provide download speeds of 644 megabits per second, a bigger step up from DSL at 1.5 mbps than DSL is a step up from dial-up.
But for now, the maximum speed Verizon sells is 30 mbps for small businesses, or 20 mbps for homes.
"Right now there are not a lot of applications online that demand 100 megabits," Lacouture said. That's true, but probably in large part due to the lack of home connections at that speed - a chicken and egg situation.
Verizon expects to cut costs for its outside equipment by 40 percent by switching to fiber. But to get there, it has to spend big.
Verizon's average cost of pulling fiber down a street was $1,400 per home at the beginning of last year, not including the cost of actually connecting the homes. The target cost this year is $890 per home, reflecting improvements in materials and techniques. If it reaches its target of laying fiber by another 3 million homes by the end of the year, that's a cost of $2.7 billion - about half of Verizon's annual earnings.
A large part of the cost, however, is labor, which doesn't get cheaper by the month. Drawing fiber along a street involves putting it underground or putting up plastic tubes on the utility poles, then pulling the fiber through the tubes.
Home installation is another cost: the target here is $715 this year, but Verizon has acknowledged that costs are running above that target. It's a big job, at least if TV service is involved. It took the installer all day to get the Donohues up and running, for instance.
Getting a "drop cable" with fiber to the home from the nearest utility pole is the small part. The installer then attaches a large box, called an Optical Networking Terminal, to the side of the house. On the other side of the wall, he installs a backup battery, which should keep the ONT running for six hours if there is a blackout.
Then he strings coaxial cable from the box to the TV sets (Verizon will use existing coax if it's not substandard), Ethernet cable to an Internet router, and a phone line to handsets.
In addition, a small box called a Network Interface Module is installed inside that needs to connect both to the coaxial and Ethernet cables.
"People talk about the risks of doing this," says Michael Render, who tracks fiber buildouts for RVA, the research firm. What they should be talking about, he says, is the risk of not building out fiber. "The world is changing very rapidly."
about Verizon fiOS:
Computer World article (2000), "Users: Optical Fiber Gives Copper a Run for the Money"
"..Verizon could provide download speeds of 644 megabits per second...Right now there are not a lot of applications online that demand 100 megabits...for now, the maximum speed Verizon sells is 30 mbps for small businesses, or 20 mbps for homes..."
ofcourse, I want it all!! Give me the whole 644mbps.. I am sure to have some fun with it. I need it, right?? Limit me to 20-30mbps? as if.
hmmm 644mbps--global domination, here I come. Who's with me? haha :)
we just let the snake slither around our shoulders. Those of us that weren't scared, at least. It was a big albino python. Creepy. But cool.
i was watching a voodoo thingy on the discovery channel once and looked up and saw my prof on there, as one of those experts that they use. i wonder if this was the same one?
exactly what did you do to that snake, hmmm miss (e:jenks) ?? :)
Once the show got past the slaughter, I was intrigued with the rest of the information I learned. I found my curiousity piqued in regards to Marie Leveau; the History channel went on for awhile about her.
hehe... we had a voodoo ceremony in med school, to bring us luck for the Match. (alas, in my case it didn't work.) But we got little gris-gris bags and played with a snake... no sacrifice though. Marie Leveau's grave is a cool thing to see though. It's like a shrine. But yeah... I don't like seeing things killed. :(