Still, when the two bidders for Singapore's new cyber highways came forward on Monday last week to say they would lay these blazing fast cables to homes, they created a buzz among techies here.
The new cables, thin as a strand of hair when stripped of its protective coat, will be able to carry not just ultra- fast broadband, but pay-TV, phone calls and all manner of online services like tele-medicine.
Instead of electrical pulses, these cables use light signals to deliver data.
This gives the new network an almost infinite capacity that can be tapped on for decades to come.
By changing the way light is transmitted, new equipment can be installed at telcos to boost speeds many times over.
Already deployed in places like Japan, Hong Kong and the United States, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), the technology used here, easily gives a user speeds of over 1Gbps - at least 10 times faster than now.
Singapore's new network may now be up even sooner, though it was originally scheduled to be ready islandwide by 2015.
One of the groups bidding for the project, called OpenNet, promises to complete the work by 2010, just two years from now.
Got questions? Here are some answers.
What can I expect?
Lots of new online services priced competitively, if things go to plan.
Users may even be able to switch a telecom operator by selecting one from a list on-screen and simply logging in - just like with a Web-based e-mail service.
This is possible because of an "open access" model used for the network.
No single telco owns the entire infrastructure. One company will lay the cables, another will run the switches and many more will buy bandwidth on the network to offer users new services.
Potentially, there could be dozens of providers in a vibrant marketplace, going by the experience in other places like Canada or Sweden, where there is open access.
Are fibre optics expensive?
Prices are coming down rapidly as such cables become more common.
However, trained technicians are still costly as they must know now to cut and join these cables made of glass fibre.
When will work begin?
The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) will announce the winner of this tender - for laying the cables - in the third quarter this year. Construction should start soon after. The company
that does the cable laying is called the Netco.
What work will be carried out?
For homes, there will be a new wall jack - for the fibre-optic cable - besides the existing phone and cable TV connectors. This means contractors may have to install cables and a jack inside your apartment or house.
Contractors would also have to run fibre-optic cables up vertical shafts in high-rise apartments called risers to reach individual units.
Many buildings already have fibre optic cables laid up to their telecom rooms, usually on the ground level. So, in many cases, it is a matter of running the cables from the base of a building to its high-rise units.
What do I need to surf?
Laying the cable (by the Netco) is just the start. After this, another service provider known as an Opco will bring the service to users by offering gear such as an ONT (optical network terminal), which is essentially a modem.
The size of a regular router now, this is connected to the fibre-optic cable in the wall jack and will have Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet connectors for you to hook up your PCs or IPTV set-top boxes at home.
The tender for the Opco will be awarded in the first quarter next year.
What happens to existing services?
They will still be available alongside newer, faster offerings.
SingTel has said it would continue to offer the traditional phone line, because some users prefer that to the new version where the phone calls would be routed through the fibre-optic modem.
Existing broadband services are likely to be offered in future as well.
But these services running on cable modem and ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber liner) technologies will have to be cheaper, as more players enter the fray with ultra-fast offerings.
This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 13 May 2008.
