U.S. fiber deployment lags behind
The percentage of total broadband subscribers in the United States who are connected with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-building technology is just a fraction of the world leaders', according to June's Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Rankings.
In Japan, 45 percent of their total broadband subscriptions use FTTH technology, whereas only 3 percent of the United States subscribers have fiber connections in their residences.
Korea (39 percent), Sweden (19 percent), the Slovak Republic (18 percent) and four other countries also have a higher percentage, according to the OECD report.
Fiber is capable of much higher speeds than copper cables and doesn't lose signal quality as rapidly the further you are from the node or source of the connection.
According to Oliver Johnson, CEO of Point Topic - a broadband information company:
"Without [FTTH], consumers and businesses will be in the second class carriage on the internet. Access to cutting-edge applications like total telepresence, meaningful telemedicine applications, multiple high definition IPTV channels as well as unhindered access to the coming cloud of applications and processing resources are core to the continuing competitiveness and growth of [any country]."
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