PHONES OF THE INFORMATION AGE FIRMS THREAD THEIR WAY TOWARD FIBER-OPTIC NETWORK.(Business)

Byline: Larry Fish Knight-Ridder

Sometime in the next few months, the telecommunications industry is likely to pass a milestone of sorts: For the first time, it will be as cheap to install advanced fiber-optic cable and its electronic hardware in most new neighborhoods as the century-old alternative, copper wire.

Phone wires made of glass fiber can carry hundreds of times more information than copper wires. Just over the horizon, a fiber-optic network promises to usher in an information age that enthusiasts say could be as profound as the Industrial Revolution.

But though big advances have been made toward the fibrous future, important obstacles remain.

As with so many other things, one of the biggest problems is money.

"It's got to be economically …