Verizon has started a video series on YouTube called The Bandwidth Effect. It covers some of the technology and the challenges behind bringing fiber-to-the-premise broadband to the general public. Copper is still commonly used in the last mile, the wiring between an endpoint (residence or business) and the distribution hub. Verizon is changing that by using fiber at the last mile. Moving away from copper allows ISPs to increase bandwidth speeds and gain other benefits like removing the effect of electromagnetic interference.
Ok, I’m sold. Where can I sign up? Oh, Verizon FiOS isn’t available in my area… I guess I’m stuck with copper.