More fiber

We've seen a lot of fiber lately: Amsterdam and Nuenen in the Netherlands; Paris and perhaps all of France, with or without France Telecom; Deutsche Telekom, possibly joined by United Internet and Freenet.de; TDC building a mix of copper, coax and fiber; Portland and Lafayette in the US (and many other cities); the FiOS build-out by Verizon.

Some are municipal, some commercial. Some are FTTH/FTP/FTTC, others are FTTN + VDSL.

The town of Hillegom in the Netherlands adds an interesting perspective. A private firm, Lijbrandt Telecom, is planning FTTH, branded 'Kadaka' ('kastje dat alles kan', box that does it all). Build-out starts any day.

A good deal on voice (free off-peak on national calls), 20/2 Mbps and a large bouquet of TV channels: just 45 EUR/mo (compare Nuenen: 60), plus all sorts of services (port your existing phone number, etc.).

Writes Dirk van der Woude (thanks again): "The catches: full vertical integration; up to euro 400 connection costs, when not subscribing at deployment time (which could mean keeping on paying, up to 11 months, for existing telco and/or MSO subs)."