A private report by Informa Telecoms & Media shows that Asian countries are deploying fiber to the home faster than ever. In Japan, there are now about 2.5 million homes and businesses with fiber connections, and 10 million are expected by 2010. FTTH connections in the U.S total probably well under half a million, and that may be wildly optimistic. NTT, just one of several Japanese fiber providers, charges about $60 a month for a 100 megabit fiber connection, compared to around $45 a month in the United States for a copper-based "broadband" connection with an average speed of 1-2 megabits.
In South Korea, Korea Telecom (KT) has stated that copper "lacked the stability" for Internet-based television broadcasting, and has chosen to provide "guaranteed" 100 megabit fiber connections to customers. KT has also stated they are replacing DSL with fiber.
Here in the United States, we are fiddling with trying to shove a few megabits of data over copper electric lines and hailing it as "broadband." How much longer are we going to remain asleep as a country before we realize that broadband is a critical economic development issue, and that we can't afford to keep investing in twenty year old copper technology?