"Regional Phone Giants Back Off On Promise To

Invest in Broadband Despite Winning A DSL Ruling"

Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2003

By Julia Angwin and Dennis K. Berman

… The FCC's ruling does put out a new carrot for the Bells. It essentially says they can have monopoly control of a newer way to deliver high-speed access to homes, using fiber-optic cables instead of copper. These so-called fiber-to-the-home efforts bring Internet and video services as much as 40 times faster than today's corporate Internet connections.

Just 33,000 U.S. homes are served by such connections, according to research firm Render, Vanderslice & Associates. The Bells have virtually no presence in this fiber technology outside of a few small pilot programs. Yet they have hinted that a fiber rollout to homes could ultimately be the best way to compete against cable because of the technological limitations of DSL.

But rewiring America with fiber is costly. Corning, Inc., a major fiber maker, estimates it would cost $360 billion to $660 billion over 15 years.