World’s Largest Network Is Already Here

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As the world watches China Telecom’s All-Fiber Network deployment, estimated to reach some 30 Million customers this year and the entire nation by 2015, its easy to see the future of networks.  China’s infrastructure plans are impressive, but we cannot forget that today a massive network sits right before us.

It is estimated that there are over 1.2 billion residences and businesses accessed by copper lines today.  With advancing VDSL capabilities it may not be long before we see speeds of copper lines eclipsing coaxial capabilities in typical operating installations.  Understanding that there is a paradigm shift in network deployments; it still remains fact that there is a tremendous infrastructure opportunity in place today.

Network costs are like airline tickets, inconsistently priced.  What you pay for an IP connection in a data center in say, New York, has no bearing on what a circuit may cost at branch office or distribution location.

All this being said, here’s what we know about copper:

• The Infrastructure is in place, it’s cheap to lease and its ubiquitous

• It works, and can be reliably accessed for primary or secondary network connection

There is no doubt that emerging networks will continue to be reliant on newer and more efficient technologies.  But like any good business, take stock of your inventory before you decide to make new purchases.