[citation][nom]mikem_90[/nom]Also: keep in mind that the US already has MAJOR backbones of fiber already laid. The emails and messages you see are already moving along fiber for 95% of their journey. There's so much fiber laid that there is a lot of fiber that is not being used, its dark. [/quote] Sprint is the main company behind the fiber, they ran it for this long distance service in the late 80's & 90's their affilliates that use their networks such as TDS and the likes are just now starting to get enough money to lay their own fiber lines to replace ma' bells old 1940'sand 50's copper wires that are degrading or damaged pretty bad from water or corrosion or it was in the frost zone. AT&T gambled on microwave and wireless networks and have built their system based on that type of service and have sunk billions into making that system and still are. every company has it's own exclusive areas they aquired from the break up of ma' bell and they gaurd their own territories like vicious animals doing everything they can to keep competing telecommunications companies out which is why cable companies got around that because their service was for coaxial cable television service, internet was a side benefit they had to develope into when dish satellites got some traction in the market.
another major factor in lack of progress is local state and federal regulations for permits, lisc.'ing and enviornmental impact studies are notoriously required every where making this incredibly more complicated and expensive and alot of cities make it a requirement to be invasive underground as they don't want unsightly poles and wires hanging every where. that further increased costs by 3x's but the price is finally starting to come down on that as more and more companies are adopting invasive directional boring rather then the ditchwitch saw trenchers or backhoes of the 90's and 80's that cut into the ground 4-8 feet down while avoiding power, sewer, water, telephone, cable, and gas lines. dating as far back as the 1700's for some of those systems. my dads company has some dandy pictures of the sewer and water systems 10-250 feet underground of chicago and nyc.
so that's a big part of the fight/cost, and now you understand why AT&T choose to go microwave/wireless. telecoms are just now getting to the point of connecting users to the sub systems they got around to setting up the back bone back in the 80's and 90's and are developing the areas most inexpensive/profitable first where there's tons of people and then working their way out as the $$$ allows to the more spread out populaces not along the main lines. so hopefully you understand why there's all the high prices. once it's done those telecoms will be moving into video-telecommunications systems where you make a call and see the other person your talking to at the other end but in full motion better then webcam tech like the phone system on the movie 5th element.
No, the real cost is in putting new switchboxes and running fiber to each house along with a fiber drop point, then running it into the house. Large diverse topographical areas are already solved.The big problem is they wouldn't be able to charge companies through the nose for their tiddly T1/T3 links they used to make money on back in the 90s. Much of their business is being the slow dumb creature that has money shoveled up to it without it doing a damn thing.[/citation]
i think this guy is pretty close to the truth with some major misunderstandings in how all these companies interact with each other as well as local state and federal regulations and the existing sub-terranian mess that's under the ground for the last 200+ years. my dads company had to put a power line thru the middle of arlington national cemetary and it was a beaurocratic nightmare for 2 years before they could even set foot in the place and another nightmare ensued once the equipment to do it showed up and all the officials and inspectors got a look at them. took 1&1/2 years to do 6 weeks worth of work. this typically happens alot, so this is not a special example, just one most americans can easily understand the hold up. i had a good laugh when obama threw away all that money to get high speed internet going as 50% is going right back to the governments before a single line gets dropped in the ground. it's the regulations that are the biggest hold ups. when it gets to be a priority in the governments eye, they do everything they need to make it happen when they want to if it's a direct benefit to them. all the other telecoms are just looking and waiting to see what happens before they jump on board and invest in the technology. most of them are looking towards an AT&T type solution tho with better satellite technology like global satallite phones.
/www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20101213/BUSINESS/12131005?p=all&tc=pgall
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