The authors discuss how the transition in telecommunication networks taking place with increasing use of fiber in all segments of the networks, together with the increasing demand for broadband services, will lead to new network architectures. The customer access portion of these networks may have a large geographical range and high functionality, and may encompass switching functions. The increased use of optical routing based on wavelength multiplexing is likely to be employed in both the core and access portions of the new architectures. Among others, these developments will mean that fewer conventional crosspoint switches are required to support future broadband networks. >