10.9 SUMMARY
After more than 20 years of research and development, a combination of techno-
logical, regulatory, and competitive forces are finally bringing fiber-based broad-
band access to commercial fruition. Three main approaches, HFC, FTTC/vDSL,
and FTTH, are each vying for a leading position in the industry, and each has
significant future potential to grow customers and increase bandwidth and asso-
ciated service offerings. No matter which approach wins, or even if all three
remain important, construction of the infrastructure needed to serve the entire
global network will take one or two decades to complete, because the capital
requirements are enormous. During this time it is almost certain that further
technical advances and cost reductions ...