>A side note about the modem speeds: Copper lines can only go 53.(something) k due to nature (copper isn't very quick, like gold or silver when it comes to transferring data, it has something to do with the electrons and resistance or something). Now when optical lines come around, then we'll see screaming lines...

It's not a limit of copper in general, but of the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System), which is primarily an analog environment and doesn't provide much in the way of error detection and correction in the signal itself, the bandwidth allocated to a voice line, and the way digital data is encoded on the analog signal by the modem. Most of the alternatives are digital environments with built in error detection, greater bandwidth and far less sensitivity to noise. I've dealt with plenty of T1 (1.544Mbps digital) lines that are at least copper between the CO and the customer site, and plenty of the DSL alternatives will offer service up to at least 384Kbps on demand over a copper link to the CO.

The two biggest factors that argue in favor of fiber optic over copper links, noise immunity and the rate of signal attentuation, have a ton more to do with why things are going fiber than the speed of electrons through the copper medium.