FCCs RFC for the Definition of Broadband

Wed Aug 26 19:23:40 UTC 2009

Joel Esler wrote:
> 
> I have fiber to the home.  I can't imagine going back to "cable
> modems" now.  eww..

I couldn't imagine leaving my VDSL2. I've seen broadband sent to the 
house via fiber, coax, and copper. I've seen them all done well, and 
I've seen them all done poorly. All are capable of hitting >50mb/s.

I personally like copper for the splice and cost on drops as well as 
cost of NID/CPE.

Coax has a lot of bandwidth, but requires you to get as close as you 
would with copper to do it right and has other issues.

Fiber is the fastest and can run off fewer remote systems, but it has 
higher costs and maintenance issues.

I would probably run fiber in a densely populated area. In rural 
America, I would stick with copper off 1.5 mile short loop remotes. A 
lot depends on what the bandwidth is for. Most of the telco's I work 
with rarely have a corporate customer paying for more than 10mb/s.

Jack