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FTTH Users’ Stories
The Power Behind the Power Gamer
On any other Internet service, Sean Kim
might be considered a “bandwidth hog.”
This Texan has been an early adopter of
every high-bandwidth application – music
downloads, online gaming, sharing digital
photos and videos, and helping his wife set
up teleconferencing to keep up with friends
halfway around the world.
Video gaming revenue
rivals Hollywood’s box
office revenue – and
online gamers like Sean
Kim are ratcheting it higher,
with the help of FTTH.
Not surprisingly,
Kim was the first
in his neighborhood
to sign up
for Verizon’s FiOS
fiber-to-the home
service. “What’s
cooler than fiber
optics to your
house?” he asks.
Kim is thrilled that
he can use Internet
applications at peak performance – especially
his favorite multiplayer game, World of
Warcraft. He explains, “Whenever you install
a new game, it makes you download all the
patches that have accumulated since the CD
was burned, and that’s like 450 megabytes.
Other players have to wait an hour for a download
to complete. I install the new game right
now, patch it quick and kick it off.”
The most important advantage is that Kim’s
video gaming no longer includes the dreaded
“red bar” at the bottom of the screen –
an indicator that his Internet connection is
not keeping him up to speed with his online
opponents. Fiber’s blazing speed assures a
rapid ride to the online game site. He says,
“With fiber, it’s always green so people want
to play with me more. And if I join a game
and someone lags, I can say ‘Hey, it’s not
me, I’m on fiber so there’s no way I can lag.’”
And 3D games are already hereas well.
Bringing the Virtual Office Home
More than 13 percent of
FTTH subscribers say
they are able to work
from home more often –
a monthly average of 7.3
more workdays at home.
The luxury of working from home is no longer
a pipe dream now that the “big pipe” is
arriving at households across America. A survey
commissioned by the Fiber-to-the-Home
Council found that more than 13 percent of
FTTH subscribers say they were able to work
from home more often – a monthly average
of 7.3 more workdays at home. Some 59 percent
of these telecommuters said their employers
were more favorable about telecommuting
with an FTTH connection than with
other broadband solutions. And in a rough
economy, many are starting their own businesses
from home. Fiber helps enable it.
Polo Morales works at a technical services
company in the Virginia suburbs of Washington,
DC. Having worked previously for
a small company that built fiber optic networks,
he understood the benefits of running
fiber to the home. So when Verizon’s
FiOS service became available in his neighborhood,
he jumped at the chance.
“It’s as fast as being actually in the building
at work,” says Morales, who says that his
fiber-to-the-home connection has enlarged
his opportunities to work from home. When
Morales had tried working at home via cable
modem, service was not always reliable. His
wife Diann notes that, with several computer
users in the family, “there would be a delay or
8 | The Advantages of Fiber | FTTH Council