Building Better Broadband Access

Broadband communications is being packaged by major service providers as an essential requirement for business and social networking. With the combination of voice, data, and video available separately or together at anytime to the home or to a mobile device, in the case of broadband wireless access (BWA), few could argue with the convenience and appeal of having such services delivered with speedy response times.

Of course, for mobile delivery, wireless technology is available in many forms around the world, including WCDMA, GSM, and emerging broadband standards such as WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE). But broadband access in the home carries more options, including services offered by copper cable companies with cable-television (CATV) services and long-distance carriers such as Verizon with their all-optical FIOS high-speed network. Obviously, stringing optical fiber cables across the country requires a major investment, and Verizon is committed to that investment. The company's 100 million and growing subscribers are evidence that high-speed optical communications technology is extremely reliable, and immune to the fading and interference woes of wireless formats. With the growing legions of Verizon customers in this country, at least, it will be hard for any BWA technology to compete in service to the home.