Green Finally Kills Copper - Fiber Saves Thousands of Car Trips

Ever since BellSouth in 1990 built the first all-fiber Central Office in Sawgrass, Florida and the VP of Network told his engineers that they had to justify why they were using copper, it marked the end of the copper era in telecommunications. Nearly 20 years later, the use of copper has diminished but not as rapidly as one would have thought. Now entire the world "Going Green" might finally kill copper - well at least give it yet another good push out the door. Verizon is showing how optical fiber saves car trips. In their Go Green PR blitz they said, "Verizon Business will continue upgrading its fiber-optic network with equipment that is four times more efficient and also reduces cooling costs. This could be equivalent to keeping as many as 16,000 cars off the road annually." There's much more in their PR but this is really cool stuff. For more amazing things Verizon is doing go here: http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2009/verizons-green-initiatives.html Along with many other companies, telecommunications is essentially a green strategy - moving information not people to anyplace they want to be anytime they need to be there. Having written the first book on Telecommuting in 1985, I have long hoped for a better world and telecommunications is new highway to get us there.