The current GPON type fiber installation seems to be fairly future-proof. The fibers themselves are quality single mode fibers (looked them up - pretty much th

The current GPON type fiber installation seems to be fairly future-proof. The fibers themselves are quality single mode fibers (looked them up - pretty much the same as in undersea cable) and at least as installed in my neighbourhood, the passive splitters are in accessible in-ground boxes with lots of room to spare for upgrades. About the only thing missing for some hypothetical future change is electrical power to those underground boxes. Here's one of the first-level splitters in its box, before everything was hooked up. Note all the (capped) spare conduits. https://wandel.ca/pic.cgi?c1bd8b14 https://wandel.ca/pic.cgi?c1bd8b14 So no shovels needed in the foreseeable future. Of course a direct burial of a no-future fiber such as multimode plastic would now be useless. Unfortunately here, the entire installation is funded by Bell Canada, and it is theirs alone with no last mile sharing, and the price is punitive (on the order of CAD$135 for full bidirectional gigabit after the initial discounts expire, and nothing practical cheaper than CAD$85).