CES 2016: Why the IoT needs fiber-optic broadband to succeed

A panel of fiber broadband experts speaking at CES 2016 in Las Vegas this week said the Internet of Things (IoT) will not only benefit from fiber-optic broadband, it will require it.

Katie Espeseth, vice president of new products for EPB – the Electronic Power Board in Chattanooga, Tennessee, responsible for building and maintaining one of the country’s most famous fiber-optic networks – explained that the country’s first gigabit-speed municipal broadband network was built to support an IoT application.

Tasked with maintaining power supply to the city, the EPB sought to deploy a series of supercomputers that would constantly monitor the power grid throughout the city. This called for an always-on, gigabit-speed internet service.

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Network World Colin Neagle