My mother used to constantly hound me to "eat more fiber. It will keep you regular." Her advice for greater fiber intake still rings true today ... for me and for enlightened homebuilders.

Fiber-optic infrastructures are the means by which savvy builders can keep their revenues "regular" by creating a consistent stream of income that is virtually unfazed by the same market fluctuations that affect the construction and sales of new homes. With lumber, petroleum and copper costs skyrocketing, isn't it about time you looked into creating a recurring revenue model for your new developments?

Admittedly, it's work. A fiber-optic infrastructure does not build and manage itself. It also does not guarantee income from residents purchasing high-speed Internet service, phone service, cable TV and alarm monitoring. It's costly to set that stuff up. Moreover, with apologies to Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams, just because you build it, does not mean they will come. Creating your own utility is much more likely to be successful in a greenfield development where the local phone company and cable company do not have plans to run networks. Finally, you need a good partner. If you think you can manage a slew of satellite dishes and a head-end network location that looks like the inside of a giant supercomputer, think again. Several builders who have tried to manage their own utilities -- often by creating a separate stand-alone company -- have failed.

But at SunRiver St. George Development Company, all of the circumstances fell into place. The active-adult community is a greenfield development just far enough out of town that the local utilities were not anxious to step in and provide infrastructure service. In fact, just the opposite, sales of homes would likely end up being delayed while the developer waited for phone, cable service and Internet service. (See cover story on p. 22.)

Are there drawbacks to fiber? Sure. Historically, it is more expensive than wire. But those costs are becoming less of an issue as the cost of wire shoots up due to increasing costs for copper and the petroleum that makes up the wiring jacket.

There's also the added cost of trenching, running the conduit, pulling the fiber and terminating it with copper wire at every home in the development. It takes a more-skilled technician to terminate fiber than someone who is skilled in wire terminations.

For homeowners, fiber offers a clean, very fast signal for high-definition TV and high-speed Internet. It is less prone to radio frequency interference (RFI) than copper, but it is susceptible to power outages. If there were a power outage in the region, homeowners would lose the ability to make phone calls, unlike copper-based systems that allow phones to continue operating without power. Also, fiber optics are reportedly vulnerable to ionized radiation. So if terrorists detonate a "dirty bomb" in the area, it's unlikely the fiber would continue to transmit signals.

But, like me, most builders and developers tend to be eternal optimists, not really worried about power outages and terrorist attacks. So in that case, I say heed the advice of my mom: Increase your fiber intake!

Jason Knott
Editor