Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Fiber to the Home is Almost Here!

I may run out of exclamation points but I'm so excited about Lafayette's Fiber to the Home Project.

We have seen Fiber Guys running the trunk lines underground lately, and this week they're running the lines on the poles in our neighborhood.

The individual prices for phone, internet, and TV haven't been announced, but the package prices on the web site are less than we're paying now.

Fiber to the Home (FTTH) means that the fiber optic line will run all the way to the outside of the home or business when it will change to coax for TV, maybe Internet. Other locations that have fiber usually have fiber only to the poles, and connect the poles to the homes with copper. Fiber to the Home means the high bandwidth possible with fiber optic cable, which also will have great benefits for business and education.

The project has had lots of bumps, with the local cable TV franchise mobilizing opposition. This project will be run by the city utility company, headed by visionary Terry Huval.

I can't wait to change over. They have even made provision for keeping the phones working during power outages, with a battery backup installed on the house. We only have power outages during hurricanes usually, and have made a policy lately of evacuating during direct hit hurricanes with a policy corollary of not returning till the power is back on.

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