US phone companies set stage for fiber to the curb

From almost the dawn of the Internet, phone and cable companies have been fighting for the hearts and minds of the savvier consumers all over the world. The key battleground is the so-called last-mile link to the home or business, where the phone companies have been pitting their digital subscriber lines (DSLs) against the cable providers´ cable modems. In most places in the world, DSLs have been the more popular option, though in the United States, with its very large cable infrastructure, cable modems have had a distinct edge. All along, however, the Holy Grail has been fiber to the curb-an all-optical link going right into homes or businesses and providing bandwidth and speed that just can´t be beat. Now, three of the four US regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs, or Baby Bells)-Verizon, BellSouth, and SBC-intend to start building such fiber-optic networks to the premises as early as the first quarter of 2004. Verizon Communications has by far the most ambitious plans: it says it intends to provide every home and business it serves with a fiber-optic connection during the next 10-15 years, at an estimated total cost of as much as US $40 billion. Verizon, BellSouth, and SBC got together and agreed on a common set of specifications for fiber to the curb. They are considering responses from vendors to their requests for proposed equipment built to those specs.