Verizon CTO Explains Benefits of Fiber-to-the-Home Broadband

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Verizon CTO Explains Benefits of Fiber-to-the-Home Broadband

6:00 am on July 23, 2007 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Internet

Fiber-to-the-home internet technology is a key investment in the future of broadband, said Verizon’s Chief Technology Officer, Mark Wegleitner, in an interview earlier this month with CNET News.com.

“In our analysis, we saw that bandwidth demand seems to be going nowhere but up. And we think in the future that more people will be using Internet technology concurrently,” Wegleitner explained. “It won’t be just one PC surfing the Web to check a flight status. More people in the home will be online at once, and it will be a full multimedia experience.”

Wegleitner noted that FTTH technology was more “robust and flexible” than the combination of fiber-to-the-curb and copper DSL lines used by AT&T Inc. When asked for his opinion on AT&T’s approach, however, Wegleitner avoided being overly critical.

“I wouldn’t say that AT&T has gotten it wrong. DSL is a good technology,” he noted. “Our concern was more about what happens a few years out. And that’s why we picked fiber … I can’t really predict how other technologies will grow, but we know that fiber gave us the headroom we needed.”

A full transcript of the interview is available on the CNET News website.