ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana
 ·AT&T Southwest
4 edits | FTTH dare-devil fiber install -- worth-it?
Is this radical fiber install method any good at all?
I have thought it would at least "get the FTTH ball rolling" in non-Verizon non-FiOS markets -- where cost has thwarted FTTH overbuilds.
1. It is *not* as good as buried conduit -- only vastly cheaper ($5/ft.) to install. 10 years of fiber life here would be great -- while buried conduit is installed when there is a proven customer base. Maintenance for fiber cuts might be higher too.
Until FiOS came along -- I really thought only something this radical would get FTTH going. Currently AT&T's Uverse architecture could be "completed" with FTTH -- in the last mile -- like this.
Can "you" see making the obvious "quality tradeoff" here -- in the name of "progress"? Do you think any town would be "game" here? (for scoring their streets with a concrete cutter and using existing street expansion-joints)
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LazMan
join:2003-03-26
Angus, ON | Up here in Canada (Toronto, in specific) a company called LightSpan (I think) is doing this exact thing... Been doing it for about 2 years now - haven't heard any real issues with it. It's cheap and dirty; but also fast. |
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ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana
·AT&T Southwest
| Yes! thats it -- "Lite Access" is the company. An actual FTTH overbuild is not immediately shown on their website -- maybe just some really long private networks?
Anyways, I had a 3 year lead on this -- but FiOS scared me away.
OK -- so should AT&T and other FTTH overbuilders use this technology? Why not?
(That's a fusion splicer on top)
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Remember the future. |
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LazMan
join:2003-03-26
Angus, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Bell Sympatico
1 edit | reply to ronpin
I don't think you'll see LEC's using this kind of technology - too much intertia to keep them in "traditional" duct installation pratices... Or going straight to direct-burried cable (like FIOS is doing for the drops).
My biggest concern, given how shallow the tubes are trenched, and the less then water-tight appearance of the hand-holes, is getting liquid water into the tube, and it freezing, causing crush-damage. That, and the ease that everyone from landscapers to road workers to other utilities could hit something 6" under the road/sidewalk surface at any point in time...
A neat idea - but don't know if I'd go for it, myself.
As an aside - I worked for a company that had the Canadian rights to a VERY similar product, only for in-building use only - placed the tubes, then blew in the strands as required - it was neat, but way more expensive then traditional cable. The cost killed it, at least for us.
Laz |
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ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana
·AT&T Southwest
| Yes, Risk with a Capital R
*B-U-T* 
As a "poor" startup -- it kinda made sense, to "risk it all" on the very cheapest installation method possible. You can always "upgrade" if and when the customer base allows it. That logic would make no sense at all to a well capitalized company like AT&T or Verizon.
Given that AT&T has been such a pussy about actual FTTH -- maybe even they would consider a loose partnership with someone brave enough to overlay their UVerse "last-mile" with this stuff?
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Remember the future. |
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LazMan
join:2003-03-26
Angus, ON | reply to ronpin
I agree that it's an interesting idea... Sometimes cheap and dirty is exactly what you need! Once you get a customer base established, and money coming in, you can build a more robust/traditional network.
Laz |
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ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana
·AT&T Southwest
| reply to ronpin
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfJOhSJCjwY
Installation video!
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boethius
Boo-Yah
Premium
join:2002-01-28
Winters, CA
clubs:
| reply to ronpin
said by ronpin  :Given that AT&T has been such a pussy about actual FTTH -- maybe even they would consider a loose partnership with someone brave enough to overlay their UVerse "last-mile" with this stuff? Partner? I doubt it. Ma Bell is at least 20 years away from FTTH I'd estimate, if it ever fully gets there. FiOS is great but a blip on the map. Street-to-street fiber is a massive, daunting enterprise, as I'm sure you know. Not impossible - just huge. U-verse is a kludgey hedge against FTTH and maintains the copper hegemony.
If you could build a viable business around FTTH I could see Ma Bell buying you out however.
I'd see what Surewest is doing with FTTH. They are perhaps the only significant non-Bell telco source doing anything major with FTTH outside of small municipalities and "elite" cherry-picked subdivisions. If you could bend the ear of one of their field engineers for a day you'd probably find out more about the realities of deploying FTTH - trenching techniques, hardware being utilized, etc. - then you could browsing the web.
That said, Surewest IS a telco (albeit a small one) with more financial resources than the average individual trying guerrilla FTTH and they DID pick up an existing FTTH network for pennies on the dollar. |
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ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana
·AT&T Southwest
| said by boethius :... guerrilla FTTH... heh-heh -- yeah that's it! (is that copyrighted?)
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