When considering a new service or product offering, most financial analysts will focus on the potential revenue from such; it proves to be an important job because if one tries to push technology too far too fast, profits can prove to imbalance with the costs.

Fiber to the home/premises (FTTx), however, offers many advantages. One of them is big cost savings. Many industry reports have explained that phone companies with aging cable plant can benefit from converting to FTTx because of the lower cost to maintain the cable technology.

For example, at the FTTH Council Conference in Las Vegas Verizon recently announced that it would cost about $22.9 billion to convert their aging wiring through 2010; however, the cost would be offset by a $4.9 billion savings in maintenance.

Verizon services 33 million homes, and its networks include some very old cabling. For Verizon, the benefits of FTTP would be enormous in the long-term. Currently, Verizon announced plans to install FTTH to over half its service area.

According to Broadband Properties, FTTH reached a mile marker of 1 million homes in Sept. 2006. As companies with cabling hear the good news, they are likely to begin conversion in the near future. Expect to see FTTx increase exponentially.         EC