From the rumblings that I am hearing, AT&T is going in the direction of fiber to the house, supplying phone, high speed internet, and hdtv, all over fiber. There is a lot of fiber going in around here, and Comcast is running ads indicating AT&T is trying to do an end-run by getting the State Legislature to pass a law saying fiber doesn't have to play by the same rules as cable - ie getting permission at the local level.
I hear rumors that high strand count fiber cable is hard to get right now. We are trying to increase bandwidth into the NAVFAC Information Technology Center (NITC) in Port Hueneme, CA and are being held up (so they tell me) by a shortage of fiber optic cable. The only 800 lb gorrila bigger than the US Navy I can think of is AT&T.
I think fiber to the house would be a great thing - more and more computers today are shipping with gigabit ethernet cards standard. Right now, to buy a Cisco router with fiber in and out, and a Cisco switch with fiber in, 2-4 ports gigabit ethernet out (CAT5e) and 12 ports 10/100 Mbps CAT5e out is about $2500. Ten years ago it would have cost $15k without the gigabit out, which didn't exist.
You can buy today a little adapter, the size of a pack of cigarettes, that converts high speed fiber optic signals to 100Mbps ethernet for use over CAT5e for $250. I wouldn't be surprised to see Linksys (the "consumer" brand by Cisco) and D-Link start selling wireless routers with gigabit ports for <$100 in the next two years.
Twenty years ago I was paying CompuServe $21.95 per hour for access at 9600 bps via modem. Now I pay Comcast $40 per month for unlimited access at about 650,000 bps (at the right time of day). When the connection is right I can download an entire 650 MB CD in 20 minutes. Back then it would have taken 12.5 days and cost $275 in connect charges! Of course, back then I was spending almost $100/month doing just what I am doing now - participating in forums with people whose company I enjoy immensely.
