Plastic LEDs Break Telecommunications Barrier

5arah writes: "Science Daily has a mirror of an article about the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and Hebrew University in Jerusalem discovering a way to get polymers to emit near-IR radiation. Once commercialized, such polymers could potentially cut the costs of the hundreds of millions of telecommunications terminals needed to bring fiber optic communications to individual homes, opening the family doors to global networks."

Comments

Exactly. Even glass fiber is only paid for once.

[Bob_Robertson]

Yes, another anti-government scree from Bob.

Every metro area that does not have a "cable TV" local utility monopoly has lower consumer cable bills, and many times competing cable providers.

So what's so hard about fiber to the home? Nothing but getting local governments out of the way.

When the demand/supply lines cross, and providers can charge what it costs to put fiber in the ground (or overhead, who cares?) they will do so.

ADSL provides the same functionality as this short-run plastic fiber, on existing copper. Why waste money with plastic fiber?

Community fiber projects exist, providing mini-metro distribution over fiber. A "gated community" is a perfect candidate for this sort of service, so is a small town, development or an apartment building. All it takes is personal initiative. And how about one 802.11 hub feeding multiple "homes" as an ad-hoc co-op to one ADSL or cable-modem link? Cheaper still, and nothing to run in or above ground.

If one answer is shoved down everyones throat by the local governments, however, it will just cost more and not give the service anyone wants.

As mentioned, it's not the cost of the end points, it's the fiber itself that needs to be run before it can be used. My personal opinion is that the vast majority of users have no use for that kind of speed and they are not served by paying the overhead for optical repeaters, multiplexors, and high-speed routers.

So I fully expect that the power of government will be used by the service providers to provide them with a shortcut to profits anywhere they can be convinced to do so.

Personally, I like the community co-op fiber distribution answer.

Bob-