Want to stream high-def Apple TV to your heart’s content? Tired of constant buffering on Netflix? Sick of gamer lag on PlayStation or Xbox Live? You need fibre optic Internet.
Unfortunately you can’t just call up the cable guy—whether he’s a friend or super-creepy foe—and ask him to tap into existing telephone or TV cables to get it. Fibre optic networks move massive amounts of data by transmitting beams of pure light, instead of electricity. That means an entirely new infrastructure is needed to bring the near unlimited data-capacity of fibre networks to new communities.
But building that new fibre optic network is a major undertaking. Every kilometre has to be carefully planned in coordination with city planners. The new network has to fit in seamlessly with the existing utilities infrastructure. It’s a painstaking and costly process. And once the exhaustive planning phase is complete, an equally methodical construction phase begins, in which thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cable are put down and gridded up together, section by section.