Fiber optic FTTP in homes
In 1986, while working as News Director of KLTV in Tyler, Texas, I originated the first live coverage of an event via fiber optics. We didn’t have a satellite truck, and there was a big trial in San Antonio that demanded live coverage. 3 phone companies worked with us and the result was magnificent (and widely covered in the trades). During that time, I got to know many fiber experts, and we all agreed that one day the copper wire leading into your home would be replaced by the infinite bandwidth of fiber. “Too expensive,” came the cries of realists. Ah, but what about this? The local cooperative telephony company in Bascom, Ohio (outside Toledo) is deploying FTTP (Fiber To The Premises) in the area surrounding Fostoria and Tiffin, Ohio. “We can’t live on dial tone alone,” says Bascom Mutual Telephone General Manager Dennis Depinet in an article in Broadband Reports that has some joyful comments from readers. It’ll be decades before fiber is available in homes throughout the country, but ultimately the market will force it to happen. It boggles the imagination, for with FTTP, it’s possible to have a recording session with a drummer in London, a keyboardist in New Orleans, guitar players from Nashville and Los Angeles, and singers in Toronto, Seattle and Miami all doing their thing in real-time with no delay. Light speed. The only way to fly.

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