

Bill to Require Fiber Optic Cable Friendly Highway Construction - joelhaus
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/173537-house-dems-want-analysis-of-laying-fiber-optic-cable-along-highways

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nostromo
Not the best title. The requirement is to build conduits (empty tubes) at the
same time as the road. The fiber would come later.

Better write-up from when it was first introduced:
[http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-
valley/technology/158975-e...](http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-
valley/technology/158975-eshoo-introduces-bill-to-promote-broadband-
deployment)

edit: title on HN was changed, woot :)

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politician
Isn't there still a bunch of unlit fiber in the ground from the first tech
bubble? Isn't the main problem getting fiber to the household (i.e. the last
mile)?

If I understand this correctly, this legislation sounds like it might have
been useful a decade ago.

~~~
jbooth
Is that actually true though? I assumed a lot of it had been lit up since
then, and if you assume continued exponential or even linear growth in
internet traffic (cable tv becoming a relic of the 20th century, etc), it
stands to reason we'll need more backbone capacity as well as more last-mile
connectivity.

~~~
smhinsey
I'm not even going to get into whether they're being honest about it, but when
I called to ask about transferring my service to a new apartment, Verizon told
me that they'd stopped rolling out FIOS to new locations because they didn't
have the fiber for it.

I kind of just assumed that it was the prelude to asking for more money, but
it seems like there's likely some truth to it.

------
dkokelley
I'm more interested in last-mile solutions. Where I live has abysmal internet
service. In fact, DSL was unavailable in our neighborhood until after cable
made its appearance. I'm willing to pay for a decent, business-class solution
for internet service, as our consumer package craps out every month or so.
However, the top business-class package for our cable provider is only 10/2,
and that would run north of $300/month without any other services like phone
or TV.

I would love a solution like Verizon FIOS but they don't serve my area. Fiber
to the home is what I really want.

~~~
9999
Verizon has all but abandoned their FIOS deployments. I wish there were more
companies like Sonic doing fiber deployments in high density cities. I assume
that isn't happening because of the Telco/Cable duopoly that controls easement
rights in almost every city.

~~~
powertower
Why did they abandon it?

~~~
count
All the relatively cheap installs are done. Running fiber is _expensive_.

~~~
dkokelley
If I owned a home, I would seriously consider paying for that fiber. As far as
I know, there are no providers that will let a private party run their own
fiber.

~~~
count
It would cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, minimum. Probably
more, if they're not already in your neighborhood with it. There are dozens of
companies that'll run you private fiber - you just have to foot the whole
bill. L3 and Cox both do it in my area, for example. This isn't a residential
cable/ftth deployment, but it sure is a provider running private fiber. It's
also orders of magnitude more than residential FIOS.

------
runjake
Somewhat related, the Southern Pacific Communications Company story is pretty
interesting. Somebody had the vision to lay down fiber optic under all that
rock and railroads ties. This network is now known as the vast Sprint Internet
backbone.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Nextel#GTE_Sprint>

[http://www.rightofwaymagazine-
digital.org/row/20110708?pg=31...](http://www.rightofwaymagazine-
digital.org/row/20110708?pg=31#pg31)

------
pragmatic
One question. Who would then have access to this conduit? Any company? All
Companies?

Someone has to own, operate, install, maintain and fix that fiber.

So, does the company that just laid their own fiber last year get penalized as
someone can come in for a much reduced cost and run fiber to compete?

This would have been a good idea 15 years ago. Now it's kind of moot. We
already have fiber that's anywhere near a federal highway. Most likely we will
have to go _under_ that highway and cross it in metro areas.

Federal grants have paid to put a lot of fiber into the ground in rural areas:
<http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/>

Disclaimer: I work for a Telco that owns a lot of fiber.

~~~
joelhaus
Inspired by the Engadget/PBS piece[1], it seems that an open auction with a
few conditions might produce the best results:

    
    
      1) Winner may sell wholesale only (i.e. independent ISPs
         must lease the right to offer the fiber for retail sale).
    
      2) Lowest per bit price for leasing wins the auction
         (or maybe there is a better metric?).
    
      3) Add some type of incentive for local governments to 
         help build-out the last mile (or maybe such a deal
         would trigger the initial auction?).
    

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I think it would get us closer
to better/cheaper broadband.

[1] [http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/28/why-is-european-
broadband...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/28/why-is-european-broadband-
faster-and-cheaper-blame-the-governme/)

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yonran
This sounds the same as the Broadband Conduit Deployment bill that was
discussed in 2008 right after the Stimulus had passed. I haven't seen a word
written against it, yet apparently it never became law. What gives? Who
opposes it?

------
there
illinois has something like this along its toll roads:

[http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_dad=portal&_...](http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&_pageid=133,1395227)

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rationalbeats
I can't believe we are still trying to figure out how to do this.

Maybe we should 1st stop the protected monopoly status of Comcast, ATT and the
other telecom cartels.

~~~
nickpinkston
Have fun with that lobbyist cluster-fuck! There's so much telco stuff that
needs reformed, but no political will at all...

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sgrossman
I doubt that the conduit that would be installed would result in more
ubiquitous wired broadband coverage or for higher speeds to existing wired
broadband users.

More likely, it would allow mobile carrier to install suitable size data
backhaul connections to their towers in rural areas instead setting up a bunch
of microwave links.

------
gofaster
fiber+wireless...

