Fiber to the Home, FTTH | What are the benefits of Fiber to the Home (FTTH)?

What are the benefits of Fiber to the Home (FTTH)?

Many have heard of internet, or HDTV, or fiber to the home (FTTH) networks. But many may consider FTTH as the next technology hype, perhaps unaware of the benefits and large potential FTTH has.  Though FTTH is getting beyond its infancy state. In the USA there are now over 6 million subscribers of services of fiber networks, many via Verizon FioS or AT&T U-verse services.  In Japan the number of subscribers is more than double of the USA, worldwide there are over 30 million subscribers.
First of all, and most important, FTTH offers so much bandwidth capacity that grow in data demand (TV, internet, phone) for the next decades will be covered.   FTTH is ready for future demand, like for instance 3D high definition TV still being developed at this moment.   Or just imagine the growth in online games that has taken place during the last years.  FTTH will be able to provide gigabits per second, via a very reliable network.  Everybody who has seen a demonstration of a fiber to the home network vs. a copper/DSL network is sold on the concept.

Historically costs of deployment have been an issue to move FTTH forward. As every house or condo has to be connected separately high costs were involved.  Costs have been coming down a lot through smart engineering, e.g. development of pre- connectorized cables. The economics for large FTTH, FTTC, FTTP, FTTN or other FTTX deployment for service providers like Verizon and AT&T is working out.  End-customers in general pay at least 20% more for FTTH services than for DSL or other copper based services, but this premium is well worth the investment for what you get in terms of additional data capabilities and speed.

The main telecommunications companies have been deploying fiber to the home networks in the most populated areas in the USA. Think New York, San Francisco, Houston, Boston etc. Via the stimulus money provided by the Obama government more money will be available as tax cuts and grants for small rural municipalities to deploy their own fiber networks.  This means in future the fiber infrastructure will be all over the US and more services are expected.

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