Kolflat estimates a per-lot installed cost of about $2,000. Industry experts warn of costs that go beyond the scope of most proposals and upfront capital expenses, namely recurring operating costs, including access and service management expenses, licensing fees based on activity, and monthly updates to electronic programming guides.

That said, the FTTH industry often cites research that indicates an increase up to $7,000 in per-lot value in communities with FTTH, and a 30 percent return on investment for developers within five years of deployment. RVA Render & Associates, a research and consulting firm in Tulsa, Okla., says home buyers will pay as much as $4,300 more for a home with fiber.

"We made a seven-figure investment, but it will easily increase lot value by $4,000 to $7,000," says Capps.

Future-Proof

FTTH providers point to several oncoming technologies, applications, and services, not to mention lifestyle trends, that will drive the market for fiber networks over the next 15 years.

"There's demand for faster access to information and entertainment," says Kruse. "HDTV is a bandwidth hog, and interactive IPTV and the doubling of Internet use every year is something networks can't support today."

Predicting the future is usually a fool's venture, but that's not what FTTH providers are proposing. Rather, they hope to encourage and inspire developers and builders to plan for the unknown.

"No one knows what's coming," says O'Donnell. "Plan for that."

HOME-SPUN FIBER
By putting fiber optics in the wall, builders undo the last broadband bottleneck.

That high-definition television you're watching? It's not really HD, at least not the way the manufacturer might claim. That's because the signal that copper and co-ax wiring takes from the curb--or even the optical network terminal of a fiber network--can't completely handle the 1080i (or 1080p) mode that the latest HDTVs were designed to deliver.

"The weakest link is the local, in-premise environment," says Brent Ware, CEO of Tenvera, a fiber-in-the-home (FITH) startup in Franklin, Tenn. (www.tenvera.com). "The only thing that hasn't been done is to finish off the promise of fiber optics with an end-to-end solution."

Designed to manage highfrequency signals while structured wiring focuses on products at the lower end of the scale, Tenvera's FITH network is built for residential settings and installed by company-certified electricians or systems integrators. Ware claims it installs 70 percent faster than home-run structured wiring; the pre-terminated fibers run from a hub to outlets that enable a variety of devices, including HDTVs and personal computers.

The network is scalable, letting builders rough-in a larger backbone and buyers choose how much to connect and grow the network's capability. That said, Ware admits the cost is probably prohibitive on projects of less than 5,000 units, estimating an in-house system to be "two or three times" the expense of a structured wiring install.

To date, Tenvera is among the only companies offering a residential, FITH network. It is targeting high-end homes, primarily though large-scale condominium developers, but also greenfield master plans, and is somewhat shadowing the efforts of FTTH providers to create synergy. Ware expects to rake in $1 billion in revenue within 14 months.