The New York Times reports that Japan is considered a “broadband paradise” with the fastest and cheapest Internet connections in the world.
Nearly eight million Japanese have a fiber optic line at home that is as much as 30 times speedier than a typical DSL line.
Matteo Bortesi, a technology consultant at Accenture in Tokyo, compared the fiber optic push to the Shinkansen bullet-train network in the 1960s, when profit was secondary to the need for faster travel.
“They want to be the first country to have a full national fiber network, not unlike the Shinkansen years ago, even though the return on investment is unclear.”
“The Japanese think long-term,” Mr. Bortesi added. “If they think they will benefit in 100 years, they will invest for their grandkids. There’s a bit of national pride we don’t see in the West.”
And while acknowledging that initial investments are expensive, N.T.T. and KDDI, the second-largest phone company, expect to recoup some of their money by selling additional products, like Internet phone and television services, that are delivered over fiber lines. They also expect electronics companies to produce an array of products that rely on fiber networks, including high-definition videoconferencing equipment and medical devices that can instantly relay X-rays between hospitals.
“The cost of installing the service will continue to go down by leaps and bounds,” said Kazuhiko Ogawa, general manager of the network strategy section at N.T.T. “In the future, we will establish a lot of alliances and applications that will combine stability and reliability.”
Seems Japan is recognizing that fiber optic networks will be the mainstay of future economic growth.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/