By Mark Rhoads -
Regional bell telephone companies around the country are in the process of phasing out all antiquated copper wire networks to be replaced by fiber optic cables to the home.
Only 16 years ago In 2000, almost every U.S. household had a landline phone. Since then, many have dropped landline service in favor of cell phones as a primary number, and nearly 50 million of the remaining lines have switched to Voice over IP, which sends voice calls in the user's broadband data stream rather than over traditional telephony’s copper wire pairs.
For one thing, this change will make the old DSL (digital subscriber lines) obsolete because there will be no need to compromise with the limitations of copper. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and others have been pushing to shift telephone traffic to fiber optics and the Internet.
This fiber optic revolution will have many consequences including faster internet connections, better voice connections, and perhaps soon making old coaxial cable TV systems obsolete which will undercut the revenue of some municipal coaxial cable monopolies and eliminate a source of local revenue.
Few local governments yet understand how fiber optics will impact their old coaxial monopolies but fiber optic networks are very good for the consumer in my opinion because the new technology offers better video broadband and even more choices in the market place. But an even bigger and better technology revolution could be in store for consumers because of the Obama Administration's foolish surrender of Commerce Department control over the internet that allows dictatorships more control and censorship of the world wide web.
I hope one result could be the creation of a new super private internet that does not depend on the old domain name system and is not tied into that old system. My hope is that there might be a new market made up of consumers who are willing to pay extra for a junk-free internet that can offer selective content from the highest-rated content providers.
Existing technologies will always fight new technologies. In the early 1950s TV was seen as a threat to radio and to movie theaters but radio adapted with new formats to fill different needs and some movies shifted to the TV medium and there was still room for movies in theaters.
My point is that there is room for new technologies that can evolve in ways different from the older models to give us more and not less freedom.
