Recently, I received a report from TXP Corporation about the growth of FTTH (Fiber To The Home) market in the North America. According to their report, US now has 3.3 million households that have access to the fastest Internet connection (25, 50 Mbps) in the North America.
In the report, it states that the number of installed FTTH households grew by 33% between Q4’07 and Q1’08, with continuous growth between Q1’08 and Q2’08, and same pattern even increasing in Q3. Well, it was about time.
I’ve checked these claims with my friends over at Verizon and who’d knew, US is actually moving to become a world leader in broadband Internet access. After spending years behind countries such as Singapore, Sweden, Japan, Germany, but also countries such as Croatia, Slovenia, and Czech Republic – companies are making an move to remedy the situation. Verizon is pushing FiOS in sixth gear, and the company wants to put as much connections as possible.
Whenever I compare AT&D DSL or Charter and Comcast cable networks to Iskon and T-Com services in Croatia, the comparison is just astounding. Croatian ISP’s provide full uncapped speed and IPTV services second to none (standard definition, 720p HD and some test 1080p channels). Compare that to alleged 16 Mbps (Charter and Comcast) which in reality does not pass 10 Mbps, no p2p traffic, capped download on alleged “flat rate” service… and of course, flat out lying about terms of service (Charter gave me 1-year contract on preferred pricing and started charging full subscription + cable TV service that was supposed to be given for free – in that contract), and not delivering what they promised. Comcast and AT&T were no better-
But when it comes to Internet in US, my ex-colleague Humphrey is enjoying Verizon FIOS, 20Mbps service (uncapped, finally), 1080p channels… so let’s hope that FTTH market will continue to develop, and that US will not be on the same service levels as Romania.
What happens after FTTH hits the unavoidable “neck of the woods” called middle-America? Data over analog TV signal, of course. AT&T and Verizon didn’t pay dozens of billions for future telephone service over 700 MHz RF spectrum.
