Beyond ADSL - Fiber to the Home (FTTH)

Were you one of the first on your block to ditch your dial-up modem for ADSL broadband? In this case, you may also be one of the first to switch from ADSL in favor of FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home). Some of us have been fans of ADSL for eight years or more now, but it is starting to seem frustratingly slow given all the new high-speed applications available online.

Korea and Japan are way ahead of most Western countries when it comes to broadband penetration. And a recent study conducted in Japan predicts that ADSL will be eclipsed by FFTH (and be the choice of more households) within just four short years.

In Japan, ADSL is already much faster than in North America. Data transfer rates (downstream) are usually higher than 20 megabits per second (Mbps) and 40 Mbps is very common. Compare that to most DSL services here where we are happy if we can secure 3 Mbps from our DSL provider.

Despite this the competing FTTH system started to take-off in Japan in 2002. FTTH can be had for almost the same monthly fee as ADSL over there! And this enables people to enjoy a 100Mbps service (for both uploading and downloading).

But for now, you'd have to live in a few very select communities to be able to access FTTH from your home anywhere in the U.S. Verizon is the one company going after FTTH in a serious way in the States. Expect to hear a lot more about FTTH in the next couple of years.

Source: Hitachi Telecom and Tech On!