As far as I can determine, the push for FIOS exclusively is another excuse
to raise rates through obfuscation. There can very fast broadband--fast
enough to stream movies--on both copper and fiber. No more FUD.
OK, I'll come clean. It absolutely sucks to maintain a twisted-pair
(not even coax) copper network Some, maybe a lot of it, is at or
near its end of service life. It makes absolutely no business sense
to continue to throw money at it, when the alternative is more
reliable, overcomes all of copper's distance and bandwidth limitations,
and allows for crushing the competition.
Yes it's a huge risk, and telcos aren't generally known for taking
risks. But a fiber network just makes sense, long-term.
It gives me relief in the three key areas that I mentioned in my previous
post. My labor costs go down because my maintenance requirements
go down. It's no fun to futz around with fifty year old copper either
up a pole or in a flooded manhole. You've got to pay some pretty
good people some pretty good money to be willing to do that. Fiber
has issues too, principally guaranteeing power at the nodes.
But that issue belongs to cable also.
I've mentioned the bandwith gain. More importantly I get distance.
Yes, DSL can go a lot faster than it does now, as you've mentioned.
But it is hardly universal because it's physically impossible to deliver
decent performance at great distance. Fiber, no problem.
I could take the approach that another telco which I won't mention by
name, which is to build a network that only goes as far as the local
neighborhood POP and then transitions to copper. It's less of a
risk but it's less of a payoff, because that pesky copper is still a network
element.
Did I mention the regulatory aspect? If I build it I own it, at this point
in
time I'm not legally required to give away access to my fiber like I am to
the copper I installed and maintain at wholesale rates to other providers,
as I have to do at present.
As a businessman, I have a responsibility to my shareholders to turn
a profit. I guarantee that I'm not twisting any arms here. If my price
is too high, well, you have options. The product is good. Better than
good. Better than the competition.
Luckily the USA still rewards innovation and investment, although to
hear you tell it, frankly, it sounds like you think you should get these
neat toys for Eurosocialist prices. The next thing you'll want to do is
nationalize the network.
That ALWAYS works well.
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