Call it fibre to the node, fibre to the home, fibre to the curb – more optical fibre is being used to upgrade networks around the world for 21st century needs.
New services and applications are being developed for home and small business use that need the reliable high speeds provided by fibre technologies.
Australia cannot afford to fall behind the rest of the world
Korea, Japan and European countries already have or are building 50-100 Mbps fibre networks.
In the US AT&T has a fibre-based service (U-verse) passing 30 million homes by 2010 with up to 320 TV channels and HDTV. Verizon has a similar service called FiOS.
AT&T: U-verse
“Cooler than Cable” – is how AT&T in the US markets its optical-fibre based U-verse service.
As at December 2007, U-verse claimed it was connecting 12,000 new customers. At the end of January its fibre network passed almost 8 million homes, with plans to pass nearly 30 million by 2010.
Verizon: FiOS
“The Future is here” – is the slogan of the FiOS fibre service run by Verizon in the United States.
FiOS offers internet, telephony, TV and on-demand videos, including High Definition Video on Demand (HD VOD).
Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia expects to deploy 52,600 FTTx cabinets in the next three years, passing more than 2 million homes and businesses with fibre.
Asia
Korea plans for 10 million services of between 50-100Mbps by 2010.
Telepresence
Cisco systems introduces new telepresence device that makes it accessible by medium-sized businesses.
Education
Primary, secondary and tertiary educators are using SMART board to interact with students, teamed with the internet to research resources and to collaborate on projects.
e-health
Innovations in products and applications for e-health are happening every date. Read more about the latest in e-health policy, products, research, telemedicine and hospital news: