Nobody really needs 1 Gbps, Verizon exec says

Verizon executive vice president and CFO Fran Shammo told audiences at the recent Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that there isn't any demand for home telecom solutions that can support 1 Gbps performance, FierceTelecom reported.

Let me begin by making something perfectly clear, a Verizon executive did not come out and randomly say that people don't need really fast internet. This is not some Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake," moment where a lofty leader steps down from a pedestal and makes a ridiculousstatement that misses the point. All of us tech geeks don't need to go to Mr. Shammo's home with pitchforks and demand faster web services. Instead, Verizon is paying attention to its customers. The company has looked at the data, it has watched Google build an experimental 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home network in both Kansas Cities and it has stepped back and shrugged, realizing that nobody really needs 1 Gbps connectivity at this point.

Looking at consumer network demands
Speaking at the conference, Shammo explained that not only does Verizon not think that consumers really want 1 Gbps, he said that Verizon could already pull off such performance if anybody really wanted it, the news source explained.

"FiOS brings a very different perspective to the household with Fiber to the Home," Shammo said, according to FierceTelecom. "We actually tested a 1 Gig circuit in New York three years ago so our FiOS product can deliver that but we just don't see the need yet from a household to have that much of a pipe into their home."

The news source explained that Verizon, while recognizing that 1 Gbps FTTH setups aren't needed, does realize that people care about having good, high-performance Ethernet setups. As a result, the company has been aggressively pursuing ways to offer better service options that reach speeds as high as 300 Mbps to meet customer demand without hitting speeds that are so high that they create unnecessary costs.

What Verizon's attitude means
FTTH is extremely important. Fiber to Ethernet media converters are critical to moving telecom networks to higher performance levels. However, it is not time to take huge leaps ahead when much of the infrastructure already installed is still not used to full capacity and many regions still need basic FTTH. In the end, 1 Gbps pilot projects like Google's are good for the industry, but the market is not yet pushing the limits of FTTH to such an extent that they should represent a major part of the sector.

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.