FBA

Fiber Finds Its Footing, Offering Future-Proof High Speeds

The COVID-19 pandemic provided the foundation case for why fiber’s symmetrical capabilities have became so central.

Drew Clark

Dec 16, 2022 — 3 min read

If 2022 was nothing else, it was the year in which symmetrical fiber became the hands-down unquestioned technology for broadband deployment.

Fiber isn’t exactly an immature technology: It’s been in widespread use for decades. But until the 21^st century, fiber-to-the-home deployments weren’t very common in the United States. In part, this was because other technologies had a strong foothold, including co-axial cables used by cable television giants, legacy copper wiring for Digital Subscriber Lines first put in place by Ma Bell and her progeny, and various forms of wireless transmissions (both terrestrial and satellite).

The 12 Days of Broadband 2022 (click to open)

On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
A Symmetrical Gigabit Network
On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2022 edition)
On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
Section Two-30 of the Communications Decency Act
On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funds
On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
5 Federal Communications Commissioners
On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
Wi-Fi 6E
On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
7.7% annual inflation rate
On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
8,132,968 census blocks and a national Broadband Fabric
On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$9 Billion Universal Service Fund
On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$10 Billion Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
11th Year of Xi Jinping’s rule in China
On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
12 or More State Broadband Officers

FTTH deployments, as they are sometimes called, grew slowly in the first decade of the century. Google Fiber sparked widespread enthusiasm with its “Think Big With a Gig” campaign in 2010. Over the next decade, more American internet subscribers began to associate a Gigabit per second (Gbps) of connectivity as the benchmark for a modern internet connection.