In his weekly column for Foreign Policy Charles Kenny discusses the cons of using fiber-optic cable as the way to provide widespread internet access in the developing and the developed world.
From the Article:
In last week's State of the Union address, President Barack Obama highlighted government programs "rebuilding for the 21st century." Among the investments in vital public infrastructure he mentioned -- roads, bridges, rail -- he promised "high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans." The president was referring to mobile broadband Internet and similar services advertised as "3G" or "4G" -- low-cost ways to help make basic broadband near universally available.
Unfortunately, that's not where government financing has been going so far. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, responsible for $7.2 billion in stimulus funds put towards bringing broadband Internet to underserved and rural areas, has already blown the majority of that money on the rollout of "superfast" Internet via fiber-optic cable -- joining a global bandwagon of speed-obsessed governments sinking billions into extending a whole new communications infrastructure across their respective countries.
Superfast Internet connectivity is often defined as delivering content at 50 megabits per second or faster. That makes it about 12 times faster than the Federal Communication Commission's standard for basic broadband. There is more than one way to deliver superfast connectivity -- cable television wires can manage 50 megabits per second speeds, for example. But for really fast Internet, fiber-optic cable is technically unbeatable -- it can deliver speeds twice as fast as cable and up. Why settle for a Ferrari when a Bugatti Veyron can go twice as fast?
The Agriculture Department is hardly the first government agency, in the United States or elsewhere, to fall for fiber. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission set the goal of outfitting 100 million households with 100-megabits-per-second Internet access. The European Commission approved spending nearly $2.5 billion worth of member government subsidies -- along with $3.2 billion of its own funds -- on rolling out fiber across the continent, with the aim of having half of European households online at speeds of over 100 megabits per second by 2020. Meanwhile, Australia has really gone all out -- it is investing $23 billion in its National Broadband Network, which includes connecting almost all Australians' homes with fiber.