Broadband stimulus: Where do fiber, wire options fit? - Network World

March 13, 2009

When it comes to bringing broadband to underserved areas of the United States, there is a general consensus that wireless technologies such as 802.11y, WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) will be crucial to getting people connected. However, many experts and service providers say that fiber infrastructure could be a big a piece of the puzzle as well.

Any discussion of building more fiber infrastructure to expand broadband access has to start with creating more backbone capacity in rural areas, as both wireline and wireless operators need backbone access in order to operate high-speed services. Essentially, backbones are clusters of fiber-optic trunk lines that small ISPs buy bandwidth from to connect their users to the Web. The trouble that many rural ISPs have is that they are located farther away from backbones' points of presence (PoP), which are typically located in major population centers. Thus, they have to pay more money for backbone access than ISPs located in more populated areas...