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Governments around the world are investing multiple billions to support the roll-out of fiber to enable high speed broadband. These subsidies are based on the premise that fiber to the home (FTTH) brings substantial externalities. It is argued that FTTH will support economic growth and is key to national competitiveness; that it will benefit education, healthcare, transportation and the electricity industry; and that it will be the TV platform of the future. In this paper we argue that the evidence to support these views is surprisingly weak, and that there are several errors that are made repeatedly when making the case for FTTH. In particular: * The evidence that basic broadband contributed to economic growth is decidedly mixed, and some of the studies reporting greater benefits have significant flaws * Time and again, data that basic broadband brings certain benefits is used to justify investment in fiber - but the investment in fiber must be based on the incremental benefits of higher speed, since (in the developed world) there is already near universal basic broadband * This error is compounded since other high speed broadband infrastructures (such as cable, and in time wireless) are often simply ignored when making the case for fiber * Fibre is credited with bringing benefits that would in fact require major systems and social change in other parts of the economy, such as a widespread shift to home working, or remote medical care. In practice, these changes may never happen, and even if they do they will have significant additional cost beyond simply rolling out fibre * Frequently business or government applications, such as remote medical imaging, are used to make the case for FTTH. But these applications require fiber to certain major buildings, not to entire residential neighborhoods (and these buildings often have high speed connections already) We do not argue that there is no commercial case for rolling out fiber, nor do we argue that fiber b

A novel new approach to underwriting the costs of next generation broadband - fiber to the home while addressing the challenges of reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions and providing new revenue model for service providers. See below for more details FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012 A novel way to fund broadband FTTH Internet - converting old coax/copper into microgrids [I have long argued that we need to find new business models to underwrite costs of next generation broadband - Fiber to the Home ( FTTH) if we ever hope to breakup the existing broadband oligopoly. The lobbying powers of cableco/telcos are so intense and overwhelming that even the few community broadband initiatives that still remain are likely doomed from this relentless onslaught.

This is a great clip created by Novay for the positive implications of a high-speed broadband, connected world. Have a look, you'll like it:

About a week ago the FTTH Council run a webinar presenting research findings on the socio-economic impact of fiber broadband in Bulgaria. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch it live so I found it, kudos to Pauline, on vimeo. You can watch the presentation at the end of the post, but before that, here's a quick summary of what is going down in the country: New regulatory measures and stricter requirements for operating a telecommunications networks brings to the fore a growing trend of consolidations among ISPs. Internet impact is highlighted especially in terms of access to information, working conditions and practical life Percentage of satisfied broadband customers: 85% of all FTTB users, 75% of cable users and 60% of all DSL users. FTTB encourages tele-working 66% of the Bulgarians consider that the availability of a broadband connection influences the selection of residence

Depuis deux ans, le pôle de compétitivité Cap Digital aide les entreprises à créer des services innovants sur infrastructure très haut débit, grâce à la plate-forme THD, une sorte de banc d'essai géant basé sur un panel de 2 600 abonnés FTTH. Les chercheurs Catherine Lejealle et Michael Bourgatte de Télécom ParisTech ont suivi ces expérimentations et ont réalisé, au travers d'enquêtes basées sur des questionnaires, une étude comportementale sur les changements d'usages induits par le très haut débit. Les conclusions seront publiées en détail d'ici à quelques mois

La Plate-forme d'expérimentations Très Haut Débit (THD) a regroupé de mai 2008 à avril 2011 un ensemble de ressources et moyens techniques pour aider les entreprises à prototyper et mettre au point leurs services et contenus numériques innovants sur les réseaux très haut débit en fibre optique. La Plate-forme THD s'est également constitué en pôle de veille sur les stratégies des industriels impliqués sur la chaîne de valeur des réseaux FTTH et un observatoire des usages numériques émergents.

Dans son récent rapport annuel intitulé DigiWord YearBook 2012, l'institut d'études IDATE fait état d'un « écart croissant entre un secteur des communications électroniques dynamique aux États-Unis et en Asie, et une Europe prenant du retard ». En ce qui concerne la fibre optique (FTTH/FTTB), le rapport fait état à la mi-2011 de 7,4 millions d'abonnés aux États-Unis, 7,3 millions en Europe centrale et de l'Est, 49,5 millions en Asie et seulement 2,9 millions en Europe de l'Ouest.

In working across the globe and working with multiple carriers deploying new, more robust broadband networks, Strategic Networks Group consistently comes up against the notion that once the network is built, adoption will naturally follow.  "Build it and they will come" is a school of thought that expresses the great hope that potential subscribers will naturally adopt, however this notion goes against what we have always known about technology adoption. Meanwhile, broadband is broadband for many consumers and businesses - who do not see the difference, nor what is possible with ultra-fast broadband (e.g. fiber / Fiber-to-the-Home). On the other hand, organizations like US Ignite are forming to promote "Next generation Applications," specifically new applications in education, healthcare, clean energy, public safety, and workforce development, including advanced manufacturing. These require the ultra-fast broadband connectivity which the networks being rolled out today will provide. And before we get to "Next generation applications," consider the bandwidth required to support online collaboration so critical to being competitive in a 21st century economy.

(Québec) Le nouveau service Fibe dépasse les attentes à Québec. Pour répondre à la forte demande, Bell prévoit maintenant embaucher 300 nouveaux employés d'ici la fin de l'année.

Depuis dimanche, les clients de Bell Fibe à Québec ont accès à des vitesses Internet allant jusqu'à 175 mégabits par seconde (Mbit/s) pour le téléchargement et 175 Mbit/s en téléversement. Autrement dit, la vitesse en amont et en aval est la même selon votre forfait, qu'il soit à 50 Mbit/s comme pour le service de base ou plus rapide encore.

ansas City is about to experience the Internet as it should be. If you're in the right neighborhood, you could be enjoying downloads speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second when Google's pilot project lights up in Kansas and Missouri this September. You might think the Google initiative will force U.S. Internet service providers, which generally deliver downloads speeds a fraction of what the search giant is promising, to finally get their own fiber projects moving. But you'd be wrong. 

Last week, a Palo Alto city commission voted to recommend the abandonment of the city's years-old effort to bring fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) high-speed Internet connectivity to its residents. In a 4-3 vote on June 6, the Utilities Advisory Commission recommended to the City Council that the city stop analysis of expanding the city's existing dark-fiber network to all residents. The recommendation came on the heels of a feasibility study that did not have promising conclusions.

merican ISPs have convinced us that Internet access is expensive-getting speeds of 100Mbps will set most people back by more than $100 a month, assuming the service is even available. Where I live in Chicago, Comcast's 105Mbps service goes for a whopping $199.95 ("premium installation" and cable modem not included). Which is why it was so refreshing to see the scrappy California ISP Sonic.net this week roll out its new 1Gbps, fiber-to-the-home service… for $69.99 a month.

A l'occasion d'une table ronde le 18 juin 2012 autour du thème « La fibre optique: nouvel Eldorado? », Joël Mau, directeur de Mission à l'institut Mines Telecoms affirme qu'il faudra « 20 milliards d'euros d'investissement afin de câbler l'intégralité de la France en fibre optique ». Cela représente le même investissement que pour créer la liaison métro du Grand Paris.