 well at deploying it throughout the various back- bone networks. Worldwide, probably some 80% of backbones are now digitalized. However, the local loop-that is, the last mile between the subscriber and the net- work-is still largely analog. Only around 10% of the subscriber lines today are digital, SO the vast majority of users are functionally limited to analog usage. We face an incredible modernization task to digitalize the local loop and to truly make the network digital from end to end. However, the even greater challenge rests in the "last mile" economics and politics. The regulatory and political issues are crit- ical as well as burdensome. Without broadband access, the Internet can't grow, advanced applications can't take off, revenues can't be realized, and we can't progress. The local loop is largely under the control of the incumbent telephone companies worldwide, and they do not seem to have the political and economic incentive to make end-to-end digitalization happen. There's lots of discussion on how to resolve this, particularly at the government level-by regulation, by enforcement, or by mar- ket forces. When we find some resolution, the telecommunications industry will blossom like never before. (See Chapter 1, "Telecommunications Technology Funda- mentals," and Chapter 12, "Broadband Access Alternatives.") Another factor that affects the new public network is that we are now in the last years of the electronic era and in the first years of a new generation of optical networking. Conversions between electrical and optical signals reduce the data rates and introduce the potential for distortion; hence, they affect the data stream. To eliminate these conversions, we need to work toward achieving an end-to-end optical networking scenario. (See Chapter 11.) The new public network must also be an intelligent programmable network. That is, we want to distribute service logic via databases on a networkwide basis SO that anywhere in the world, you can access any service or feature you want, regard- less