Stop, It's Fiber Time
NYTimes reports on how the regional Bells are betting their future on fiber-to-the home. Verizon has already started wiring homes in Forth Worth, Texas that let people have 6Xs the speed of cable internet access for only $34.95/month.
Verizon pledges to spend $3 billion to install fiber technology to 3M homes by the end of 2005 starting with 1M in 9 states this year. Each installation will cost the company $1000 per home in labor and equipment.
The phone companies are forced to do this because they have lost 16% of their land-line customers in the last 4 years. Fiber cable does not rust and uses less electricity. Some analysts think the company can save $1 billion in operating costs by 2008 after the initial outlay.
The skeptics say the return on investment will never work and the companies have promised grand capital investment schemes before that never panned out. As phone companies try to move into TV space, one thing for sure is the cable companies will not stand still.
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