competitors. As of early 2007, there is little evidence, if any, that FTTP operators
are encountering any major sources of operational or financial failure.
11.8 CONCLUSIONS
Commercial fiber optics technology has developed over 30 years with consistent
improvements in terms of bandwidth-times-distance performance. At the same
time, prices for cable, transmission systems, and related apparatus have decreased
with product and process improvements. As a result, fiber optics have been
deployed cost-effectively for increasingly shorter distances in telecom networks,
as well as for applications with a smaller bandwidth-times-distance product, such
as FTTH.
As the twenty-first century got underway, fiber-optic systems for access net-
works were in early deployment. ...