Fiber’s future-proof advantages

While Nebraska’s PSC recognizes that there is an array of broadband technologies available, it notes that fiber is the most robust medium for consumers and the needs of the growing data center market.

Watermeier notes that fiber offers three main benefits not seen in wireless or satellite technology: scale, support for development (wireless and cable networks), and reliability.

From a scalability perspective, not all technologies can satisfy the FCC’s 100/20 Mbps broadband definition, but fiber can serve as a future-proof medium.

“Fiber-optic networks can greatly exceed those speed thresholds and can meet our needs into the foreseeable future,” Watermeier said, adding that “data centers aren’t using wireless or satellite technology to move data – they are using fiber.”

Given its ability to support large amounts of bandwidth on one wire, fiber has long served as the backbone for an array of communications technologies and applications.

“We need fiber-based networks to support wireless, fixed wireless, and cable networks,” Watermeier said.

Finally, fiber offers a reliability factor that other technologies can’t match. While service providers will leverage existing utility poles to bring fiber into neighborhoods, fiber is less susceptible to weather hazards and natural disasters.

“Fires, tornadoes, and ice storms in recent years in Nebraska have shown the need for the resiliency that fiber can provide,” Watermeier said.

Advancing and maintaining fiber networks

While building fiber networks in rural areas is a key first step, being able to advance and maintain them is no less important.

Part of this process calls for service providers to continually upgrade the electronics (WDM and PON networking gear) on the fiber that delivers services to an array of consumers, businesses and data center providers.

Nebraska service providers like ALLO Communications and Great Plains Communications, which merged with Right Fiber, are engaging in various upgrades on various fronts.

ALLO Fiber announced the successful completion of multiple fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) broadband projects, expanding high-speed internet access to thousands of homes and businesses in rural and underserved Nebraska communities through grants awarded by the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) using Capital Project Funds.

Before Great Plains Communications announced its merger with Right Fiber, it acquired Fastwyre Broadband, an internet service provider serving customers across multiple states, to acquire Fastwyre’s business in Nebraska, which serves more than two dozen communities.

“Deploying broadband infrastructure will not be enough if these networks are not maintained,” Watermeier said.  “We have heard from industry providers that although the investment in fiber itself may last for 40 years, the circuitry required by fiber must be upgraded much more frequently to accommodate changing technology.”

He added that network upgrades will be necessary to accommodate the evolving performance requirements to support AI.

“This is to be expected as demands on the networks for download and upload capacity, as well as latency demands, continue to grow,” Watermeier said. “The tasks AI is capable of today will be eclipsed by what it can do five years from now – so long as the network is upgraded to keep up. For that reason, I want to emphasize that new buildout must be as future-proof as possible in the face of developing technology.”

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