Here we go again. Just when I thought I was enjoying affordable, high-speed Internet access, along comes yet another new technology that makes my once-fat data pipe look like a swizzle stick. I'm talking fiber.
Fiber-optic Internet access (known as Fiber-to-the-Home, or FTTH) has been around since early 2001, when Usen Broad Networks launched its Broad-Gate 01 service in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. Later that year, NTT began offering a similar service under the B Flet's name and Tokyo Electric Power Co. launched its own trial optical fiber service. Yet only recently have fiber-optic connections become practical for the average consumer.
One reason for this was the high cost for fiber. Unlike DSL and CATV, fiber doesn't rely on existing telephone or cable TV lines to transmit data. Instead, fiber-optic cable (by design delicate and expensive) has to be pulled all the way to your home or office, and this is rarely a trivial task. As a result, setup costs often easily exceeded 30,000 yen. Monthly service fees for FTTH until recently had also been much higher than DSL.