NewsBriefs
Fiber-to-the-Home Drives Telework, Home Business
By KA Staff
Jul 12, 2007, 11:54

High-bandwidth connections are enabling more people to work from home, according to new research by RVA Market Research. RVA’s survey of fiber-to-the-home subscribers found that over 13 percent were working from home more often – a monthly average of 7.3 more workdays at home instead of the office. More than half of these telecommuters said the fiber connection had helped convince their employers to allow them to work from home.

Another 10 percent of respondents reported using their FTTH connections to run home-based businesses, with 90 percent of these saying the high-bandwidth fiber optic connection was either "very important" or "somewhat important" to their business activities.

Mike Render of RVA noted that the number of FTTH subscribers in the United States has doubled in each of the past two years – they now reach 1.5 million – and that fiber-enabled telecommuting could have a wide impact as FTTH services expand to more people in the coming years.

“Of course, not everyone can work from home, no matter how robust their connections are,” Render explains. “But 13 percent working seven more days from home per month averages out to one more day at home per month for each FTTH-connected worker. As fiber-to-the-home grows, and you begin to apply this impact across many millions of people, you can begin to see an impact on our commuting patterns - resulting in fewer cars on the road, fewer gallons of gasoline being consumed, a reduction in greenhouse gases, and less traffic-induced stress on working Americans.”

Joe Savage, President of the FTTH Council, which sponsored RVA’s research, notes: “We are starting to get an indication of how this high-bandwidth technology is changing our culture. Many people are reporting that their home connections to their employers’ networks are faster than the connections in their office. These new online capabilities at home are giving them alternatives to long commutes and high gasoline prices, as well as new options with regard to where they live and how they conduct their work."

Higher Speeds + Lower Broadband Prices = Satisfied Customers

The RVA report, based on in-depth surveys of FTTH customers across the U.S., also found a high level of customer satisfaction with fiber-to-the-home services, with 85 percent satisfied. These overall satisfaction rates were considerably higher than satisfaction rates measured for customers using cable modem, DSL or dial-up connections.

One reason for high customer satisfaction rates is the speed of FTTH connections. When survey respondents tested their download speeds, 43.8 percent found they were downloading at transmission rates of between 5 and 10 Mbps, with another 16.4 percent operating at above 10 Mbps and the median download speed coming in at more than 5 Mbps. This compares with the median download speed of 1.9 Mbps for all Internet users found in last month’s survey by the Communications Workers of America.

In fact, companies like Verizon and Surewest are offering broadband speeds as high as 50 Mbps through their fiber-to-the-home services, and some public utility districts in Washington State are offering 100 Mbps in their service areas. (Verizon’s FiOS accounts for about two thirds of the fiber-to-the-home connections in the U.S., while the remaining subscribers are served by more than 400 municipalities, utilities, independent phone companies and other types of carriers. AT&T also provides service over FTTH in a limited number of new housing developments.)

Fiber to the home also seems to be having a competitive effect pricing for other types of broadband connections. More than a third of FTTH customers reported receiving lower price packages for competing services since fiber became available in their communities.