Did the phone company replace all the wires across the nation with fiber optic cable?

Question

I just got dsl with internet and was wondering if the phone company replaced my line to the house with fiber optics however my house still has regular wire. I am receiving ok is that ok or should i up grade my house wires too. Is the whole country connected with fiber optic cable now? Is your neighborhood all fiber optic cable? Any fiber optic cable resources or stories? What can fiber optic cable possess?

Answer 1

NO...



if you have DSL you are not on a fiber optic cable, you are on copper.. .



while the technology to run DSL over fiber optics is available, it is too expensive for the telephone companies to invest in it, so DSL is only available to customers who are connected to the central office with a copper cable/pair..



FTTH is not regulated as copper wire is, so the RBOCs do not currently have to provide access to the outside plant for resellers and CLECs as they do with the copper plant..



Verizon has sold off their entire copper infrastructure in some locations to smaller regional telephone companies..



the telephone companies have been installing so much fiber optics over the last few years deploying their FTTH offerings (FiOS / Uverse) that many of the suppliers for fiber optics inventories are depleted, or low - which has driven up the cost of fiber cabling...



a fiber optic cable can handle more data or bandwidth than a copper wire can - it cost much less than copper not only to purchase, but maintenance wise as well since fiber optic cabling is not as susceptible to weather related troubles as copper wiring is..

Answer 2

The Inter exchange networks are almost all fiber.



However, exchange to customer circuits are still mostly copper.



If you have regular DSL, you have copper to the CO still.



If you have VDSL, you have Fiber To The Neighborhood.



Right now, I have copper to the CO, but fiber is installed in my neighborhood, fo FTTP deployment next year.



DSLreports has a Fiber section, but is a mish-mash of theory, customer installations, and professional installers.



Current fiber used for FTTN and FTTP can carry phone, Internet, and TV (either IPTV, traditional cable, or a hybrid of the two).

Answer 3

There is brand new right out of plant copper cable going into the ground everyday. I seriously doubt you will see in your lifetime or your grand children's the country totally connected by fiber. The are hundreds of thousands of miles of copper in the ground and I personally have never seen one inch of it removed to be replaced by fiber.