Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) replaces existing copper infrastructure such as telephone lines and coaxial cables by carrying communication signals over optical fibers from a carrier's switching equipment all the way to a home or business. Fiber-to-the-home is a relatively new and rapidly growing method that provides consumers and businesses with higher bandwidth for more powerful video, internet and voice services.

Connecting homes directly to fiber optic cables can greatly improve the bandwidth that can be delivered to consumers. Current fiber optic technology can provide bidirectional transmission speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. Additionally, as cable modem and DSL providers are working to squeeze higher-bandwidth increments out of their technology, continuous improvements in fiber-optic equipment are continually increasing the available bandwidth without requiring fiber replacement. This is why fiber optic networks are called "future-proof".

More than 15 percent of homes now have access to FTTH networks, and more than 5.3 million homes in North America are now directly connected to high-speed, high-bandwidth fiber optic networks. There are thousands of connections every day. As FTTH service providers continue to deploy and add customers, we can now get a glimpse of what the new era of next-generation broadband means for consumers who use them.

Just as the evolution from dial-up Internet to DSL and cable modems brought innovations and applications — such as YouTube and Skype — so too will symmetric bandwidths jump to 100 megabits per second and beyond. FTTH has already had an impact on the way people live, work and play. How will it change your life?