McLaughlin's home is one of 200 in a trial fiber-optic system built by the local utilities company. The cost of such cutting-edge technology is falling fast. We have had to bring down our estimates considerably. But better wireless communications technologies means laying cable or copper wire is no longer the only way to provide fast access. The National Taiwan University in Taipei is connecting separate campuses with a microwave transmission system capable of moving data at 1.55 megabits per second, fast enough to cybercast lectures from the medical college and offer interactive question and answer sessions.
Microwave can be the short-term answer.
Meanwhile, Lucent Technologies is working on a system that uses laser light instead of radio waves. That will soon change. Mobile systems next year are expected to raise transmission speeds to 56 kbps, equal to that available at home. At that rate, laptop computer users will effectively be freed from their phone jacks, and handheld computing devices will become much more compelling as communications and information tools. No wonder Tachikawa Keiji, president of NTT's mobile communications division, predicts the number of wireless communications devices will outnumber Japanese people by three to one by 2005.