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Principal Sponsors:
 | Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) Telephony |
Definition and Overview
One of the most promising technologies for telephony service providers, particularly those who are also interested in providing comprehensive residential and small-business services including data and video, is hybrid fiber/coax (HFC). It offers net builders plenty of opportunity, but it also presents difficult choices, pitfalls, and expensive dead ends.
Overview
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is just one in an ongoing stream of regulatory changes driving telecommunications, but it is also an acknowledgment of change already taking place. Markets and technologies are in flux and, between those and changing regulation, the pressures on network builders are enormous.
Business's recognition of telecommunications as a weapon for competitive combat is fueling an arms race such as the industry has never seen before. Companies' communication needs rival those, in the not-too-distant past, of small cities. Meanwhile, entirely new markets—home businesses, the Internet, and the World Wide Web are just a few—are creating home demands that, in some cases, exceed those of some companies just a few years ago.
Every niche in shifting markets acts as both spawning ground and battleground for companies that seem to spring up overnight. The boundaries of commerce, technology, education, and entertainment barely have time to blur before they disappear completely. The suddenness with which the Web appeared and then swelled beyond anyone's wildest dreams is a good indication of the speed with which change will continue to occur. For network service providers, the only certainty is that demand will continue to boom.
Growing markets generate competition. In telecommunications, with stakes in the billions of dollars, that competition promises to be fierce. Service markets will be open to all comers, so the luxury that regulated companies once had, of building slowly and deliberately, will be nothing but a memory. And, while nothing is certain, the smart money is on convergence, the integration of what are today separate services: voice, video, and data.
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