So, a contest has as an entry that one should write a blog post about fiber technology. Me being a total smartass, my first draft of this post involved yarn..but I decided to rewrite it with a serious tone.

What does fiber mean to me?

It means independence. I am currently stuck with two choices for highspeed connection: Verizon DSL and Comcast Cable.  I chose cable because after having DSL for 8 years and desperately wanting for more..I could finally have it.  Wrong choice.

My Comast service sucks.  I get no where near the advertised bandwidth, my connection is total crap and drops out all the time, and I am constantly fighting against timeouts and DNS issues because of Comcast’s crappy network.  Fiber would free me of all of the hassle and let me surf the tubes of the internet (or dump trucks if that is the metaphor you prefer) without having to fight.

I see the Verizon trucks in my area, advertising FiOS..but not for my apartments yet. I beg of you…bring it to ME! I’ll be your first subscriber.  To Comacst: YOU SUCK!

More to the point, fiber technology to the home will finally help accelerate the US onto the world stage of broadband penetration. Japan is already at what, 50% fiber penetration? I have friends in Korea who are paying half of what I do for a 20mbps connection and they have “the slow internet”.  It is time for the good old United States to catch up and start using some of that dark fiber across the country.

Faster internet connections foster creativity, help build new friendships, and expose the viewer to a whole range of information sources.  We don’t even have cable at my house, we get our news/entertainment via the web from sources like Digg (for news) and Hulu and Youtube (entertainment).  Not to mention faster connections allow wonderful technologies like VoIP to flourish. There was a time in my life where I couldn’t have lived without my Skype phone.

To sum it all up: Fiber is good for you, its good for me, its good for America. So on today, Labor Day in the US, salute those who are bringing us fiber and encourage them to labor harder at getting it to my apartment!

Fiber is also good for making yarn and helping keep your digestion regular.  (I can’t believe I made it the entire post without making that joke!).

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