The cost of running fiber deeper to the extent of achieving passive and near passive cable architectures has been dramatically reduced due to recent advances in HFC access network components. This paper explores various technical and economic aspects of "deep fiber" architectures, and how the rapid evolution of 1550 nm EDFA 's, optoelectronic receivers, passive optics and an optimization of HFC network elements such as transmitters, nodes, and the return path can now yield substantial network improvements for a deep fiber environment.