An article in the New York Times business section (Friday, May 17th, 2002) entitled "Energy Trades Echoed In Broadband Market" by David Barboza, focuses on the now all-too-familiar unsavory energy-trading transactions we're hearing a lot about lately. In his article, Barboza explains how sleazy executives try to build market share by trading high-speed communications capacity.

As you'd expect, the companies Barboza names include the likes of Enron, Dynegy, El Paso Energy Partners, and Reliant Resources. The mis-managers at these companies (I'm hard pressed to call them firms) acknowledge making so-called round-trip trades of electricity in an effort to cash in on the photonic networking market.

Execs at these companies hoped to buy capacity on optical networks by repeatedly selling routes to each other (at the same price on the same day). Swindling employees and investors, these folks did create some jobs in the process, especially at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI. Many thanks to WorldCom, Adelphia, Global Crossing, and Qwest Communications.

Always On
Although perverse, the interest shown by con artists masquerading as executives underscores the potential of ultra-fast photonic networking, especially for its promise of "always on" connectivity for PC users. Lightning-fast bidirectional connectivity is a magnet for users eager to swap packets supporting every conceivable type of transaction and content.

Less tainted than the shenanigans of Enron and Dynegy, Federal ultra-wideband initiatives underscore this possibility. In the US Senate, for example, Senator Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina) has sired a bill dubbed the Broadband Telecom Act of 2002 (S. 2448). Hollings' intent is to foster a national broadband strategy.

Other wideband bills are afoot too, notably the Tauzin-Dingell Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001, and the Breaux-Nickles Broadband Regulatory Parity Act of 2002. Despite their long-winded monikers, both promote wideband for the masses.

An Industry Coalition
Legislative initiatives notwithstanding, industry is responding. One example is the recent formulation of a clique called the High Tech Broadband Coalition. HTBC member heavyweights include the Consumer Electronics Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association, and the National Association of Manufacturers. HTBC predicts the economy could get a $400 billion/year boost from ultra-wideband short-haul links.

On the political front, ex-vice-presidential contender Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) is also jumping on the bandwagon---with a leapfrog proposal. Lieberman contends that ultra-high-speed connectivity is the much sought-after "killer ap" that the electronics industry and the broader economy are waiting for.

Like Hollings and others, Lieberman is calling for a national wideband strategy, proposing that the US immediately shoot for technologies beyond today's DSL and cable modem systems. The senator is calling for nothing less than deployment of 10-Mbit/s and even 100-Mbit/s connectivity to homes and business. His plan is dubbed the National Broadband Strategy Act of 2002.

Senator Lieberman must be attuned to what's happening in Japan, a country where wideband is already viewed as an economic shot-in-the-arm. According to optical fiber maker Corning, the Japanese are well along in implementing their e-Japan fiber-to-the home project.

Corning vice president Alan Eusden says Japan's goal is to connect no less than 30 million homes with 10-Mbit/s links by the year 2005. In the same timeframe, Eusden reports that e-Japan expects to have ten million Japanese homes connected at a breathtaking 100-Mbits/s.

With those kinds of speeds, products and services such as video-on-demand and voice-over-IP will be commonplace in Japan. Industry prognosticators say 10-Mbit/s Internet PCs will spell big changes in the way people conduct their daily lives, to say nothing of the impact on the Japanese electronics industry and business at large.

While long-haul Gbit/s fiber is now at a mature stage of deployment around the world, fiber-to-the-home--the so-called last mile--is ripe for exploitation, with new turf in sight for technology developers, manufacturers, component makers, and suppliers of electro-optical interfaces and tools. Are designers, consumers, industry regulators, investors, and the Wall Street gang ready to tackle the promise of ultra-wideband short-haul communications?