Tag archive: fiber

A new FCC report looks at the state of broadband Internet access in the United States and generally finds that providers are improving on actually delivering the upload and download bandwidth they advertise to their customers—but, as a group, they aren't there yet. The FCC's Measuring Broadband America report finds that providers are generally delivering 80 to 90 percent of advertised capacity to consumers, with a small… Read More

Everyday Internet users are primarily concerned with bandwidth to their homes, offices, or whatever mobile devices they might be carrying at the moment, but a device's link is just one step in a much broader—and very complicated—inter-related set of networks that carry Internet traffic around the world. Today, that world got a little less complicated—or at least it's going to have one less name to remember.… Read More

CenturyLink has announced it has completed its $12.2 billion all-stock acquisition of Qwest Communications, resulting in a new company with some 47,000 employees that's the third largest telco in the United States. Between Qwest's and CenturyLink's networks, CenturyLink now offers services in some 37 states, as well as wholesale connectivity to government and business customers via nearly 200,000 miles of fiber. The combined… Read More

Many a broadband customer has been excited to pay extra money and upgrade their service to new high-bandwidth technologies that promise they'll be able to download movies and music in just seconds. However, a nearly equal number of broadband customers have also been dismayed when, once everything is hooked up, they rarely seem to get anywhere near the amount of bandwidth their ISPs claim to be selling them. Now the UK's… Read More

It took two years to lay, stretches 17,500 kilometers, and cost $650. But the fiber optic cable operated by Seacom has brought high speed Internet access to East Africa, connecting South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia, the BBC reports. Due to be launched last month, but delayed by the activity of Somalian pirates, the services were officially unveiled in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. In Tanzania, the… Read More

At the moment, British Telecom (BT) has to provide a copper cable connection to homes in the UK, something that’s fine for landlines and current broadband connections. But, in order to have drastically faster speeds, what’s needed are fiber optic cables. And they cost money. A lot of money. But BT has said it’s willing to invest $3 billion in a fiber optic network that will cover about 40% of the UK by 2012, as well as… Read More

In a new report, market research firm Parks Associates forecasts that some 18 million U.S. households will subscribt to FTTx fiber optical services by the year 2011, pushing the technology into the mainstream of broadband access options alongside cable and DSL. Currently, roughly half of U.S. households&mdahs;between 50 and 55 million—are estimated have broadband Internet service of some sort. Recent estimates from Jupiter… Read More

“Verizon, the country's largest telephone company, is using its fiber rollout to directly confront Comcast, the country's largest cable company, in the region. Like Verizon, SBC Communications and BellSouth are also rolling out fiber. The fourth former Baby Bell, Qwest Communications International, however, has eschewed the technology so far, saying fiber to homes doesn't make economic sense. “ Read more at… Read More