An unprecedented number of devices are coming online soon, and our current wireless systems weren’t built to handle the volume. The people developing and implementing standards for wireless internet for years have had the same goal: to make connections faster, while using less power. Now they’re faced with a different dilemma. We’re on the cusp of an unprecedented explosion in the number of devices coming online—billions of smart-home sensors, industrial devices and artificially intelligent computers. The systems we have now simply weren’t built to handle the sheer volume.

In all the talk about accelerating 5G, testing 5G and getting 5G in the hands of a few lucky consumers in the next couple of years, there is one aspect of the next-generation wireless story that is still interesting.

The upper limits on fiber capacity haven’t been reached just yet. Two announcements made around an optical-fiber conference and trade show in San Diego recently indicate continued progress in squeezing more data into fiber.

Fast, reliable Internet is vital for communities to fully participate in the economy. Download speed requirements vary based on the activity, location and number of users, and these needs will continue to change as technology advances.

Due to new technology’s inherent likelihood to leave segments of the population behind, experts and stakeholders say government must work to ensure small-cell network rollouts benefit the whole of communities.

Glossary of Broadband terms and definitions.

The complexity and enormous costs of installing new longhaul fiber-optic infrastructure has led to a significant amount
of infrastructure sharing in previously installed conduits. In this paper, we study the characteristics and implications of infrastructure sharing by analyzing the long-haul fiber-optic network in the US.