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The reason for the split is that you don't want to have a bunch of companies trying to lay wire everywhere. It's very easy to build 10 power plants to connect

by mason55 12y ago

The reason for the split is that you don't want to have a bunch of companies trying to lay wire everywhere. It's very easy to build 10 power plants to connect to the grid vs. trying to run 10 sets of power lines everywhere. The problem is that internet wire technology moves so much faster than power wire tech. Even in just the last 20 years we've gone from copper phone lines to cable to fiber. As long as the last-mile tech continues to improve it will be hard to work this scenario because what incentive does the "wires" company have to re-do all their infrastructure from fiber to the next big thing?

jessaustin 12y ago
Even in just the last 20 years we've gone from copper phone lines to cable to fiber. Is there any reason to suspect that today's fiber (albeit possibly "lit" by tomorrow's fiber modems) will be insufficient twenty years from now? Are we approaching some sort of theoretical limit to the number of beams of light that one glass fiber can transmit?
- AnthonyMouse 12y ago
  > Is there any reason to suspect that today's fiber (albeit possibly "lit" by tomorrow's fiber modems) will be insufficient twenty years from now? Are we approaching some sort of theoretical limit to the number of beams of light that one glass fiber can transmit? No. And the premise that we've gone from twisted pair to coax to fiber in a period of 20 years is similarly silly. Telephone wire is essentially telegraph wire and has been in use since before the American civil war. Coax is from the same century and had been in use for cable TV before the internet was even a thing. Even modern fiber optic cable is older than, say, TCP/IP. The only reason fiber wasn't used to begin with is that the other cable was already in the ground before the internet existed.
seanp2k2 12y ago
Coax was running to houses more than 20 years ago, DSL still works fine over copper, and many places aren't wired for fiber. Not saying your point isn't valid, just that it's a smaller problem.

by mason55 12y ago

jessaustin 12y ago

Even in just the last 20 years we've gone from copper phone lines to cable to fiber. Is there any reason to suspect that today's fiber (albeit possibly "lit" by tomorrow's fiber modems) will be insufficient twenty years from now? Are we approaching some sort of theoretical limit to the number of beams of light that one glass fiber can transmit?

AnthonyMouse 12y ago
> Is there any reason to suspect that today's fiber (albeit possibly "lit" by tomorrow's fiber modems) will be insufficient twenty years from now? Are we approaching some sort of theoretical limit to the number of beams of light that one glass fiber can transmit? No. And the premise that we've gone from twisted pair to coax to fiber in a period of 20 years is similarly silly. Telephone wire is essentially telegraph wire and has been in use since before the American civil war. Coax is from the same century and had been in use for cable TV before the internet was even a thing. Even modern fiber optic cable is older than, say, TCP/IP. The only reason fiber wasn't used to begin with is that the other cable was already in the ground before the internet existed.

seanp2k2 12y ago

Coax was running to houses more than 20 years ago, DSL still works fine over copper, and many places aren't wired for fiber. Not saying your point isn't valid, just that it's a smaller problem.