Broadband reality checks

Here are some newsbits that may serve as reality checks of broadband demand in general and FTTH in particular. Food for thought, Fibre Ring!

• Previously announced plans for doing FTTH in Lisse (NL) were abandoned by Lijbrandt, for lack of demand. I suppose targeted pricing actions from the local MSO prevented the signing up of at least 40% that Lijbrandt, a Wessels/Reggefiber company, aimed for.
• Apparently, broadband is not an issue in the US elections so far. It attracted just 1% of the votes in a poll.
• Last month, Deloitte issued their 2008 predictions that I got via a Mondaq newsletter (free). Among the trends they mention are the effects of an economic downturn on both spending and the need for profitability. "In the wireline sector, the current speed to beat is 100 Mbit/s. (...) there may also be a growing group of individuals who question the consumer need for faster speeds and the tens of billions of investment dollars this may entail."
• Of an entirely different order: the number of subsea cable cuts in the Middle East reached four. Conspiracy theories abound. Rerouting (if not self-healing) happens pretty quickly, but it shows the vulnerability of the internet (see Benoit's post also).