When you look closely at the stats around Fiber to the Home/Premise/Curb and the markets the RBOCs are going after, you have to realize that the roll out map isn't where there's a lack of broadband. It's going right after the customer who already has it. The cable market's existing customer base.
That's because the promise of faster speeds and a unified billing solution has been already proven as an attractive marketing message, so now the RBOCs are trying to win the users back. In my view, going after the cable customers makes sense because the existing DSL customer will be treated as an upgradable customer so there's no real need to market to them yet, as the RBOC already owns their access to the world of High Speed Internet, and the dial up user is the hardest to find but already their customer too.
Unfortunately there's a whole other market being missed though, and that's the current geographically disadvantaged who live in rural America and are part of the Internet excluded. They need high speed too, and at some point some smart company will find a way to deliver real Internet service to them beyond dial up.
Andy:
A good place for that "smart company" to start serving the geographically disadvantaged is here in Vermont. On Saturday the legislature passed the "e-state" bill which, among other things, authorizes $40 million in revenue bonding to build middle mile facilities like towers and fiber.
The State is not going to become a last-mile ISP but it is going to help level the playing field for those who want to serve its rural areas. The goal is 100% broadband access (usable bb, not satellite or the FCC definition)to every building and everywhere outside by 2010.
I posted more about this at http://blog.tomevslin.com/2007/05/flash_vermont_l.html
Posted by: Tom Evslin | May 14, 2007 at 02:10 PM