With the explosion of bandwidth-hungry habits such as peer-to-peer file sharing, video streaming and teleworking, experts are warning that Canadian ISPs are reaching the limits of their capacity under the current infrastructure. But while service providers in other countries are investing in new technology to increase capacity, Canadian telcos are trying to curb high-use customers through methods like throttling, or degrading the speed of clients who use peer-to-peer software.
As individuals and businesses hunger for more bandwidth, proponents of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) technology say putting the brakes on user activity is a tactic that can't last.
"Companies are trying to stand firm and squeeze more bandwidth out of their copper technology because they can't go back (to investors) and say they need more money to run fibre all the way to the home," said David St. John, spokesperson for the FTTH Council.
"The great thing about optical fibre is that it is 'future proof.' That is, we can keep improving the technology to increase the bandwidth and provide ever higher transmission speeds without having to replace the installed fibre. We are expecting that by 2020, high end user homes will need over 1,000 Mbps service.
Often referred to as the final step in high speed, FTTH replaces the last mile copper connection from the neighbourhood node to the home with glass or optical fibre.
The difference is startling, says Arvind Chhatbar, CEO of Ottawa-based Enablence Technologies, a maker of a FTTH subcomponent. "Every home that gets wired for fibre optics with our devices has the potential to receive up to 1.25 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data transmission, which may be as much as 100 times faster than so called 'high-speed internet providers.' At minimum, the homes with fibre will have 100 Mbps [connections]. Compare this to Rogers or Bell high speed at 2 to 7 Mbps."
If all of this is new to you, you're not alone. That's because even with some of the earliest adoption and highest Internet usage rates in the world, Canada is a major laggard in FTTH.
Japan is in the leader with seven to eight million connected and Singapore and Korea are close behind. Much of Western Europe is also making heavy investment, according to Michael Render, president of RVA Market Research and Consulting.
Although adoption in the U.S. has also been slow, Verizon Communications Inc. plans to invest $23-billion to get FTTH to 18 million homes by 2010. It costs anywhere from $800 to $2,500 to re-wire a residence using FTTH, depending on the density.
Experts predict Canadian companies will have to make the investment anywhere from two to 10 years from now.
"Incumbent companies say, 'What's the problem? We have broadband and it's improving all the time.' The analogy I use is broadband is like a paved street. Incumbent companies are saying they're going to have paved roads but only have them one lane wide. If they're only one lane wide, there's not much point, is there?" said Toronto high tech consultant Bill Hutchison.
Both Bell and Rogers representatives told the Globe and Mail that they are investing in Fibre to the Node or the closer Fibre to the Curb technology, with the last mile remaining as their DSL and cable lines.
Jason Laszlo, spokesperson for Bell Canada said this is where the bottle necking occurs in high bandwidth usage. But FTTH proponents don't buy it.
"That it is shortsighted and a temporary solution. Eventually they have to go to the home as the rest of the world is doing," said Mr. Chhatbar.
