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In the UK farmers are laying their own fiber. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37974267 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37974267

goodcanadian 9y ago
To be fair, distances in rural Britain are much shorter than distances in rural America. That said, I applaud them for doing it, and I have occasionally thought about pursuing a project like that myself.
- KGIII 9y ago
  Another anecdote, I paid for DSL to be brought to my area. A neighbor chipped in and bought an extra mile to be upgraded. It was costly but worth it. I pretty much considered it a cost of having my house where it is.
  - r3dey3 9y ago
    How much did that cost? and how far are you from wherever it had to be run?
    - KGIII 9y ago
      About $36,000 and I am about seven miles from where they installed some new equipment in a large box on a pad. I don't actually know what is in the box. I think it might be called a DSLAM?
      - toomuchtodo 9y ago
        Correct. That's the DSLAM (most likely with fiver backhaul to the central office).
        KGIII 9y ago
        I believe I only paid for the equipment and Fairpoint paid the installation expenses. This was about nine years ago and I didn't pay as much attention to it as I should. I was pretty occupied. There are only six residencies in my unincorporated township. All but one have DSL, now. The one that doesn't have it, doesn't want it. They live beyond where the power and phone lines stop, anyhow. Anyhow, they are all pretty happy and grateful. As I was moving into the area, this was a good ice breaker. I'd say that I definitely got good value for the money. I get ~12 Mbps down. More importantly, a neighbor brought me some Piccadilly, just today. Worth every penny.
- vinayan3 9y ago
  It would be really fun digging up places to lay fiber. I've wired up 2 offices for new networking equipment when the company moved. It's pretty satisfying seeing the stuff you rigged up light up and actually function. It was pretty fun but I can imagine doing digging with equipment would be even more fun.
  - chrisper 9y ago
    Until you severe a cable with said equipment and you make the news that AWS is down because if you!
    - 20after4 9y ago
      That's valuable publicity & infamy.
  - timthorn 9y ago
    Cambridge University laid a fibre MAN and presented their fun at UKNOF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLJlmcC2c8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLJlmcC2c8

goodcanadian 9y ago

To be fair, distances in rural Britain are much shorter than distances in rural America. That said, I applaud them for doing it, and I have occasionally thought about pursuing a project like that myself.

KGIII 9y ago
Another anecdote, I paid for DSL to be brought to my area. A neighbor chipped in and bought an extra mile to be upgraded. It was costly but worth it. I pretty much considered it a cost of having my house where it is.
- r3dey3 9y ago
  How much did that cost? and how far are you from wherever it had to be run?
  - KGIII 9y ago
    About $36,000 and I am about seven miles from where they installed some new equipment in a large box on a pad. I don't actually know what is in the box. I think it might be called a DSLAM?
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      Correct. That's the DSLAM (most likely with fiver backhaul to the central office).
      - KGIII 9y ago
        I believe I only paid for the equipment and Fairpoint paid the installation expenses. This was about nine years ago and I didn't pay as much attention to it as I should. I was pretty occupied. There are only six residencies in my unincorporated township. All but one have DSL, now. The one that doesn't have it, doesn't want it. They live beyond where the power and phone lines stop, anyhow. Anyhow, they are all pretty happy and grateful. As I was moving into the area, this was a good ice breaker. I'd say that I definitely got good value for the money. I get ~12 Mbps down. More importantly, a neighbor brought me some Piccadilly, just today. Worth every penny.
vinayan3 9y ago
It would be really fun digging up places to lay fiber. I've wired up 2 offices for new networking equipment when the company moved. It's pretty satisfying seeing the stuff you rigged up light up and actually function. It was pretty fun but I can imagine doing digging with equipment would be even more fun.
- chrisper 9y ago
  Until you severe a cable with said equipment and you make the news that AWS is down because if you!
  - 20after4 9y ago
    That's valuable publicity & infamy.
- timthorn 9y ago
  Cambridge University laid a fibre MAN and presented their fun at UKNOF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLJlmcC2c8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLJlmcC2c8