| reply to dynodb
No demand for fiber to the home?!?!?!@!W#$ said by dynodb:Currently there's no great demand for FTTH- quite a few are still satisfied with 1.5M (or even less) DSL. There's no demand for fiber to the home???? How do you figure that? I couldn't disagree with you more. Whitacre would like for you to believe that there is no demand for fiber and that dsl is sufficient. In fact he has stated that a few times in interviews. And he wants you to believe that because he already has a paid for copper network in place and he has already recieved payment to build out the fiber to the home network that was suppose to be 80% in place by 2004.
Instead of building out that network he invested in lobbying, restored the monopoly and entered vertical markets. In 1996, SBC maintained phone lines and wasn't even allowed to sell long distance. Now look at them!
Frankly, what is his motivation to build out this fiber network? There's no competitors to speak of beyond cable and that product is no better than dsl. So what's his motivation to replace his already paid for copper network with a billion dollar fiber network? He has no motivation. And that's why none of it is done.
As a consumer, an American and someone in the ISP industry, I can't stand Whitacre. But as a stockholder he did no wrong. After finding out about his announced retirement (on BBR) I set my trading account to dump my 177 shares first thing when the market opens Monday. I think that this day signifies the peak of the telco dynasty. In the next few years the power companies are going to enter the ISP market and for the first time the telcos are going to face real competition.  |
|
dynodbPremium,VIP
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN | said by T1 Rocky:said by dynodb:Currently there's no great demand for FTTH- quite a few are still satisfied with 1.5M (or even less) DSL. There's no demand for fiber to the home???? How do you figure that? I couldn't disagree with you more. I said no great demand. BBR posters aren't representative of the market- for instance, Verizon is only getting 10% penetration the first year FIOS is introduced in an area, and 15% in areas it's been available for over a year.
When 85% of the people who can get it don't, I'd characterize that as less than great demand- especially given that they're deploying to more urban parts of the country where one would expect overall broadband usage to be higher. |
|
| They really aren't advertising it or pushing it that much. Many of the initial installs are word of mouth. The demand IS there when people learn about it. |
|
