• Goal 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.
• Goal 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.
• Goal 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.
• Goal 4: Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 Gbps broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.
• Goal 5: To ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder should have access to a nationwide public safety wireless network.
• Goal 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.

As you can see besides the ambitious targets on the number of homes access to broadband, the plan also contains ideas about how to use the network: first responder and energy consumption management are among them.

Many of you might have been surprised about Google announcing their fiber network experiment. Google plans on building a super fast internet network and offer this service to at least 50,000 people up to half a million.  During this month communities interested in working together with Google to provide their community of a network can ‘apply’ to Google and provide them with more information.

Many communities are interested….for instance Buffalo, NY, where the major is actively seeking support from the community in convincing Google should build their network in their town. It will be interesting to see how this develops. Google is offering services in a field dominated by Verizon, AT&T and Comcast. With no experience in this field Google will need to partner up with a strong partner to deploy all the fiber and to deliver content over the network. A daunting task? Perhaps, but perhaps not for Google…

Cloud computing, video, remote storage, and other bandwidth-intensive services are driving demand for higher-speed connectivity. Data center and enterprise network managers must replace existing 10-Gbit/s links with 100-Gbit/s links to meet user expectations and business needs. Carriers are upgrading transport links to 100 Gbit/s or more as suitable solutions become available. To meet these needs, equipment providers are developing new systems with 40-Gbit/s and 100-Gbit/s interfaces that cover distances from a few meters to several hundred kilometers. During 2010 there will be significant investment by equipment vendors in 40GE and 100GE solutions for both the data center and enterprise backbone.

‘ The march to all-fiber networks is showing no sign of letting up in the United States and Canada,” says Joe Savage, president of the FTTH Council, which promotes and tracks the growth of fiber to the home in North America. “Given the growing sophistication and bandwidth requirements of online and video applications, as well as the high satisfaction that current FTTH subscribers are expressing about their fiber service, the growing consumer demand for end-to-end fiber is now a fact of life and something that our members are working hard to satisfy.”

This also means the take rate, that is the relation between the number of connections and the number of people subscribing to services delivered over FTTH networks is going up. This is good news for companies like Verizon that deploy these expensive networks, as it means more and more people recognize the value of the services over FTTH networks.

It is the fourth generation and is succeeding 2G and 3G standards. 3G standards are widely referred to in commercials by telecommunication companies (Verizon, Sprint) , but can hardely provide the mobile internet services it promised. The increase of mobile internet, for instance only the apps downloads for the Iphone, create such a demand for data that we are really should look forward to 4G.  The world with 4G will look different. The battle for 4G technology is still ongoing – LTE , WiMax – , and it is still an IP network with the tradition problems like VOIP security etc. , but it will revolutionize the world like the Iphone did. You will be able to run very powerful programs and application on smaller and smaller devices, like phones and netbooks. Imagine watching High Definition football games live on your phone when you are travelling….

The APG network will connect Japan, Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The signatories to the agreement for the development of the gateway are China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, NTT Communication (Japan), Vietnam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT), Korea Telecom (KT), Philippines Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) and Telekom Malaysia. The telcos will jointly finance and own the APG network.

The Optical Link partners will develop low-cost technology for optical cables, among other by combining ICs and PICs with microlasers and detectors.  The whole project is funded and the Eurostars Program, a joint initiative of Eureka and the European Community. It has  a duration of 24 months and will start July 1, 2009.