Without infrastructure competition there is a risk that one organisation, essentially then Next Gen Incumbent, will invest and try to sweat their new asset for as long as the regulator and government permits them; in such a world there can be little effective market pressure. But the pace of innovation in fibre bandwidth is such that a closed market will soon fall behind those where innovation and competition is encouraged and vibrant.

 

For anyone with singe mode fibre in the ground today:

All of these standards are designed to use the same single mode fibre that is commonly installed today - the only change needed is in the shorter-lifespan active equipment. Using modular central equipment with replaceable interfaces, such as GBIC's, it should be possible to deliver rolling customer upgrades as the technology becomes available and matures.

 

With pressure for bandwidth improvements coming from within the market, broadband can join the software and microelectronics industry in perpetuating Moore's Law, and with it invigorating academic research in growth industries such as opto-electronics.

 

The technical challenges to delivering ever-increasing bandwidths are far from insurmountable; bandwidth could almost be irrelevant today and tomorrow may be meaningless, finally freeing individual, community and commercial creativity. But only if there is an inherent market imperative to innovate. This is only likely to occur if investment in competing architectures is encouraged. It is therefore critical that national regulators understand not just the commercial and economic aspects of next generation broadband, but also the technology.