Even though this story is a couple of weeks old, it’s still worth noting for those that haven’t heard the news.  As mentioned in this Feb. 19, 2010 article of the Edmonton Journal, Shaw Cable has plans to start trials on a new Fibre to the Home (FTTH) service to a select few (and damn lucky!) Edmonton area homes starting in August of 2010.  This new FTTN service is said to be theoretically running at gigabit (1,000Mbps) network speeds – that’s 133x faster than their current 7.5Mbps service that a majority of subscribers have, and 10x faster than their brand new 100Mbps DOCSIS 3 connection (currently priced at $150/m).

Fibre connections have been in existance for decades.  They are the backbone of the internet.  Since fibre connections are expensive (usually costing in excess of $1000/m for a 10Mbps bi-directional connection) only businesses have made wide-spread use of the technology.  There are fibre nodes in your neighbourhood already, likely within a block or two of your home, but it’s that “last mile” that’s been too costly for internet providers to build up to the home.  Its been easier to develop “channel bonding” technologies into the existing coax lines (which are already there for TV), rather than run new, expensive lines to everyone’s doorstep.  But as with everything in technology, there comes a breaking point that the costs are both manageable and profitable for wide scale deployment, and 2010 may just be that year.

So why would you need THAT much speed?  Isn’t your internet connection fast enough?  Well it is, for now.  The growing trend is that people are consuming television and movie media online, on demand, in high definition.  Services like Netflix (in the US) and CTV’s recent demonstration of live streaming their Olympic broadcasts online are examples of how people can consume media when they want it and how they want it.  There’s also podcasting and other non-traditional media that are using the internet as their delivery mechanism, and the internet service providers like Shaw are preparing for the possibilities.

Voice, video, and internet, can all be delivered through the same pipe, in real time, in high definition.  Imagine video conferencing with your parents that are in another province, from your living room on your big screen TV, and seeing each other in high definition.  Manufacturers like LG and Panasonic are already putting 720p cameras and conferencing software into their TVs to provide us this option.  Most North American homes don’t have a fast enough connection in both directions to get the full 720p clarity out of hardware like this, but for Korea & Japan, a capable connection is common place.

Shaw is future proofing.  Any good business does.

So with news like this, my biggest question becomes – who do I have to sweet talk at Shaw to get on the trail list??!!