Fiber optic cable has a lot in common with railroads.
- They are both very expensive to install.
- Both are sunk costs (once installed, the capital costs cannot be recovered except through sales.)
- Both are expensive to access. For a railroad, you need to build a siding. For fiber, you need to splice into the cable.
- Switching is expensive.
Railroads were replaced, for all those reasons, by the personal automobile. What will fiber be replaced by?
