Many businesses underserved when it comes to broadband
Limited connectivity options have left many businesses without the broadband services they need.
By Max BurkhalterAugust 14, 2012
Fiber-to-the-home installations, private projects to accelerate network speeds in specific areas, rural broadband programs and similar consumer-focused strategies to accelerate internet performance have become common. However, a recent FierceTelecom report said many businesses are still underserved.
According to the news source, there is currently a situation in which many organizations are running their internet using slower networking options based on copper cabling infrastructure. In some cases, this trend stems from many companies looking at what they are trying to do and convincing themselves that if they really limit how the internet is used, they can get by without using more broadband. But there are also many organizations that would want better internet services, but cannot get it because there is a lack of infrastructure in place to enable business broadband services.
Anna-Maria Kovacs, visiting senior policy scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy, told the news source that many businesses still believe they need some of the low-speed network links currently in use, even if higher speeds are available.
"While two-thirds of American households see the value of using lines that run at 15 Mbps, the largest enterprises' networks still include many connections that run at 1.5 Mbps," Kovaks told FierceTelecom in a guest blog post. "These companies, and the competitive carriers who serve them, insist that they will need to continue to use those slow links for years to come."
The report explained that while some companies still are happy with existing connectivity options, many underserved businesses are having a difficult time getting the bandwidth they need because fiber to the business and similar internet service infrastructure is not in place around enough of the country to support enterprise needs.
While FTTB has yet to flourish, many experts agree that the solution could help fuel increased fiber deployment in the United States. When implementing FTTH, which is wildly popular, the revenue gains are limited because many of the consumers that can afford to pay for the service already have it, making the high cost of installation a challenge for telecoms. However, supplementing FTTH deployment with FTTB gives telecoms the ability to reach out to business that want better internet, monetizing the infrastructure and enabling for more fiber-optic network development.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
According to the news source, there is currently a situation in which many organizations are running their internet using slower networking options based on copper cabling infrastructure. In some cases, this trend stems from many companies looking at what they are trying to do and convincing themselves that if they really limit how the internet is used, they can get by without using more broadband. But there are also many organizations that would want better internet services, but cannot get it because there is a lack of infrastructure in place to enable business broadband services.
Anna-Maria Kovacs, visiting senior policy scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy, told the news source that many businesses still believe they need some of the low-speed network links currently in use, even if higher speeds are available.
"While two-thirds of American households see the value of using lines that run at 15 Mbps, the largest enterprises' networks still include many connections that run at 1.5 Mbps," Kovaks told FierceTelecom in a guest blog post. "These companies, and the competitive carriers who serve them, insist that they will need to continue to use those slow links for years to come."
The report explained that while some companies still are happy with existing connectivity options, many underserved businesses are having a difficult time getting the bandwidth they need because fiber to the business and similar internet service infrastructure is not in place around enough of the country to support enterprise needs.
While FTTB has yet to flourish, many experts agree that the solution could help fuel increased fiber deployment in the United States. When implementing FTTH, which is wildly popular, the revenue gains are limited because many of the consumers that can afford to pay for the service already have it, making the high cost of installation a challenge for telecoms. However, supplementing FTTH deployment with FTTB gives telecoms the ability to reach out to business that want better internet, monetizing the infrastructure and enabling for more fiber-optic network development.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
