As mentioned in the previous section, there are many conventional uses for fiber optics which we may overlook in the whirl of everyday life. However, fiber optics promise a future of technology which we can not ignore. A future which will bring the world even closer together, making our planet seem even smaller. i.e. The future of a data infrastructure. For example if you are using any type of internet application, chances are somewhere along the line, the information you see on your screen has been transferred over fiber optic wire. Maybe it was the e-mail you sent last week or the web page that you are about to link to 20 minutes from now. Most of what you see, computer communications wise, would be impossible without the promise of fiber optic communications.
The existing information network of the United States is comprised of numerous telephone cables, ethernet wiring (computer to computer connections faster than conventional wiring) and a handful of fiber connections. Machines linked across the country are held together by these types of wiring so the e-mail which you may send to a friend across the country travels through hundreds of machines before it reaches its destination.
The network described above is fine for conventional uses such as electronic mail and some graphical applications such as the Web browser you are now using to view this presentation. But let's take a look at the future, 10 years down the road we'll say, when a lot of the conventional wiring will be replaced with faster and more efficient fiber optic wiring, it will be then that the future as is predicted today will become reality.
Think about it. The increased rate of data transmission will allow you not only to look at two dimensional web pages, but will rather allow real time, full screen video to be sent effortlessly. There will be no more downloading as we know it, as download times will cease to exist due to the faster data transmission speeds. The phone will be replaced by video conferencing equipment (voice, video and data) and the television as we know it will become extinct as network programming will be replaced by video-on-demand (where one selects what he or she wants to watch when he or she wants to watch it). These are all promises made by fiber optic wiring; promises that will come true once the current data structure is replaced with fiber optic wiring.
Today's media has latched onto a few of these ideas and has been hyping them as if they are right around the corner, waiting for the ideal market conditions to launch them. The truth is that what we have been discussing in the previous few paragraphs is impossible today on a nationwide scale, but will someday be commonplace. The reason for fiber not being installed nationwide is a simple one: cost. Who is going to pick up the tab for the huge price of wiring the nation. The answer is no one.. yet. The internet is pretty much free right now and it will remain that way until the high speed network (from fiber) is in place.
Telephone and cable companies are not willing to step into the arena since although they are aware of the great advantages of fiber, they are turned off by the possible human reaction that maybe people are not ready to progress past a certain point.
The possibilities of a data structure supported by fiber optic wiring is endless.
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