On January 11th 2013, CNET announced that fiber optic broadband is on the rise. According to new statistics recently released by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD), fiber optic broadband usage rose 13.9% in the months from June 2012 to June 2013.
Japan leads all developed nations with a 68.5% penetration of fiber optic links. South Korea runs a close second, followed by Sweden in third place. The US is in 14th place with 7.7%. The fastest growth of new connections is taking place in Mexico with growth in the UK coming in second.
While the US lags behind other nations in fiber optic growth, it leads in the number of broadband connections. These connections are via copper wire and can't match the properties of fiber optic cable. Fiber optics can reach longer distances and can achieve data transmission rates of 100 megabits to 1 gigabit per second. However, copper is very convenient and in most cases when it comes to installing new connections, it's already in place. For that reason the growth in the use of fiber optic cable remains slow.
Most homes today don't necessarily need 1 Gbps broadband speed, but new uses such as streaming audio and streaming video could be carried out with greater efficiency, without any need for buffering. I think that data transfer rates could also be used for downloading content, such as music and movies that are compressed at a higher bit rate, to improve audio and/or video quality.
Or, if the transfer rates are high enough, the content might even be downloaded in it original file format. Imagine buying an CD or DVD and having it on your computer in a matter of minutes, for playback just as if you bought it from a brick and mortar store.
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