
11
Global landscape in broadband:
Politics, economics, and applications
Richard Mack
KMI Research, CRU Group, Mount Pleasant, London, UK
11.1 INTRODUCTION: USE OF FIBE R IN ACCESS
NETWORKS—DRIVEN BY BROADBAND
SERVICES
The first installations of fiber-optic systems for commercial communications
occurred in the late 1970s. “Commercial” means that the network operator was
selling communication services and carrying traffic for residential, government, or
business customers. In the 30 years since then, the public network operators or
“carriers” have installed more than 600 million km of cabled fiber in telecom
networks throughout the world.
The average numb