Computer Execs Back Low-Cost Info Network : Technology: Industry officials tell Congress that replacing copper wires with fiber-optic cables is unnecessary.
Instead of spending billions on an advanced fiber-optic network to upgrade the nation’s information network, the federal government should focus instead on upgrading the existing copper wire telephone network, computer executives told Congress Tuesday.
Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, key industry officials said technologies such as digital compression and digital switches would more quickly and inexpensively produce the kind of information system modernization being sought by President Bill Clinton. Those technologies could enable conventional copper wires to carry more information over the same conduit.
Clinton has said improvements to the nation’s infrastructure are necessary to create new jobs and keep U.S. industry globally competitive.
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Fiber-optic cable, made from hair-thin strands of glass, are capable of carrying huge amounts of information. Several nations, including Japan, are spending billions of dollars to install it.
But Clinton, who during the campaign had promoted fiber-optic cable as a way to improve the information network, has recently de-emphasized infrastructure spending and, instead, focused more attention on slashing the federal budget deficit.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corp. and developer of the widely used Lotus 1-2-3 computer spreadsheet, told the subcommittee that neither U.S. industry nor the federal government should embrace fiber-optic cable because a national network would be too costly and take too long to produce results.
Kapor acknowledged that improvements to the existing copper wire system have been slow and uneven, with Bell Atlantic Co., NYNEX, Ameritech and Pacific Telesis leading the way.
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But he said that digitizing copper wire nationwide would allow consumers and business to send and receive video images over phone lines and to expand their computer and data transmission capabilities at a modest additional cost--about $4.50 a month on the average phone bill. Witnesses estimated that such spending could create a $3.5-trillion industry over the next decade and produce tens of thousands of jobs.
But some critics scoffed at the notion that such a modest change could increase America’s competitive edge.
“Fiber optics is clearly the medium of choice for both business and consumers,” said Bernard Walker, associate manager of Teleport Communications Group, a New York-based telecommunications provider that is one of the leading installers of fiber-optic cable. “If you are going to modernize something, wouldn’t it make sense to use the best available technology?”
