The currently installed fibre cables work just as well as they did a year ago. Calling them obsolete is a bit of stretch.

Besides, I think most homes are not even close to using the full capability of what fibre can offer nor do a lot of people need that extra bit of speed to browse Instagram/Facebook/YouTube/Whatever else.

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PaulKeeble 3 days ago | parent [-]

An old computer and processor work just as well as they did when made but they are still obsolete because something better has been released. This does make all the fibre obsolete, doesn't make it useless but the replacement will reduce latency.

	▲	lazide 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		That’s not how it works. A hammer is not more obsolete for driving a nail because pneumatic nail guns exist. Using just a hammer on a commercial framing job is silly, however, because pneumatic nail guns work better. Everyone still has a hammer ready though, because it is still needed. Using a pneumatic nail gun to hang a picture is silly, because it is so overkill (and expensive) that it actively makes it harder to do the job. This tech doesn’t obsolete existing fiber for last mile because the extra cost associated with producing and splicing it dwarfs any potential gains (which would likely be in the 10’s of ns). If it is proven to work well, this may obsolete existing transoceanic/transcontinental fiber runs, where the latency difference will be noticeable enough the cost is worth it. However, it’s highly unlikely that anyone will actually turn down any of these existing lines. The different is not so much that the old lines are useless. If, eventually, this new fiber is at the same price point and as easy to work with as the current fiber? then the current fiber will be obsolete.