The Lifelong Learner         by Stanley Kubasek | About Me |

As you know, broadband is good: there is no coming back to dial-up. But broader band is even better. The broadest broadband is optical fiber, capable of moving data at multigigabit-per-second speeds. The only way we get hundreds of television channels, movies on demand, teleconferencing, etc. is through fiber. I see a bright future in fiber.

And now, we're beginning to see some action. That is, from companies that will deliver the fiber -- Verizon, SBC and BellSouth -- that are putting a big pile of money into fiber (Verizon alone reportedly has plans to spend $20-40 billion over next 10- to 15-years). What's cool, though, is that they agreed on a standard, which will lower costs. The main reason for the action, though, is that DSL cannot compete with cable speed-wise and they don't know any other way around.

But the point I'm trying to make: Until we get fiber to our home, we'll not be able to experience movies on demand, watching shows live on the internet, listening to music and radio on the internet, etc. -- all of the really cool stuff that requires a super-fast connection. And once the price is going to be right, fiber will experience tremendous growth -- because of the potential. Stay tuned.