From Lebanon’s Drones to AI, Robotics and Moon Missions: The Fiber Optic Age

From Israblog to the Battlefield: Israel’s Fiber Optic Revolution.

As Israel now faces drones connected by fiber-optic cables — a technology capable of challenging even the “Startup Nation” — I was reminded of something I wrote nearly 20 years ago.

In June 2006, I published my very first post on the old Israblog platform. Its purpose was to draw public attention to what at the time sounded almost like science fiction in Israel: broadband communication through fiber-optic infrastructure.

To promote the idea, I launched a blog called FTTH Israel — Fiber To The Home Israel — dedicated to raising awareness about bringing fiber optics directly into Israeli homes and businesses.

Back then, I wrote that fiber optics would allow someone to live in Mitzpe Ramon while feeling as if they were working from New York, thanks to communication moving at the speed of light.

When I wrote those words almost two decades ago, much of the world was already advancing rapidly in telecommunications, while Israel’s market was still moving at a painfully slow pace.

I could not have imagined how many bureaucratic battles and delays Israel would go through on its path toward the technological front line.

I remember well how the city of Modiin — already built with fiber-optic infrastructure — refused to activate broadband services for residents because officials feared it would create pressure to deploy similar infrastructure nationwide.

Even at the municipal level, many decision-makers failed to understand that whenever roads are opened for construction, fiber-optic infrastructure should be laid simultaneously. Otherwise, reopening roads later becomes expensive, disruptive, and frustrating for the public.

At one point, senior officials from the Tel Aviv municipality visited Vienna, then considered a European pioneer in fiber optics. Engineers there had even developed technology for deploying fiber cables through sewage systems — without digging roads, disrupting traffic, or creating major disturbances.

But in Israel, the response we received was simple:

Fiber-optic cables could not be installed through municipal sewage infrastructure.

Only in recent years has Israel truly begun reaching large-scale fiber-to-the-home deployment — a technology that had already become standard decades ago in Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing.

Today, it is almost impossible to imagine modern life without that infrastructure.

Artificial intelligence, remote work, Zoom calls, global television broadcasting, online education, streaming services, and real-time international performances all rely on fiber-optic networks.

So does the modern battlefield.

The technology that once seemed like a futuristic dream for telecommunications enthusiasts has become part of the infrastructure underpinning the economy, society, and security of the 21st century.

And it all started with a small Israblog post in June 2006.