Looking at the flash animation - "How it works" for Verizon in-home fiber-optic internet service... They offer speeds up to 30Mbps down/5 up

At some point they go to explain why is their service so fast (compared to traditional broadband providers). Apparently it is because "the light travels so quickly". Of course! Silly me. I totally forgot that an average speed of an electron in a copper wire is about 1.5 mm/s. That explains my sluggish internet connection.

 

On a related note. SBC at some point announced the plans to deploy fiber connectivity option to the consumers. The deployment project was called "Project Lightspeed". Catchy... Then they announced plans to accelerate the deployment (after FCC lifted some restrictions). Ars Technica suggests that the project should be now named "Project FTL"