Interesting to read this Wired article which laments the patchy roll out of fibre in the US. The article talks abut the fact that fibre roll out in the US is concentrated to areas that Verizon services and local government supported projects. Interestingly the ld chestnut that has been hotly debated hear appears in the Wired article which says;
Still, it’s not entirely clear that people on fiber connections are going to have a big advantage over slowpokes on regular broadband. Today, there is not much that can be done on a fast connection that can’t be done on a standard one. Fiber is already available to a third of South Korean homes, but that hasn’t revolutionized society there, at least not yet.
Now I agree we need to give everyone some degree of reasonable connectivity. I was at a enterprise development agency board meeting yesterday discussion this issue, and the fact that there are a number of people within the area of the EDA with no access to DSL whatsoever. Clearly this is an issue – and I believe a more important one to solve initially than the FTTH one.
But it’s an argument that goes round and round – and I guess if I was sitting in Wellington or suburban Auckalnd I’d be calling for targetted urban FTTH as well – it’s just that we need to remember where our GP comes from – a significant part does in fact come from rural busnesses, the very busiensses that have the potential to become much more efficient and value adding with the application of technology – and good rual availability of DSL will help with that.
