4 ms·

> Too bad Sonic doesn't have fiber in my office area, but I hope they will at some point. Aerial (telephone pole) deployment is vastly cheaper than trenching (

> Too bad Sonic doesn't have fiber in my office area, but I hope they will at some point. Aerial (telephone pole) deployment is vastly cheaper than trenching (and many business parks and newer neighborhoods were built with conduit buried with AT&T/Comcast already in them), so Sonic's deployment generally has followed where there are aerial options to utilize. That said, I think (micro)trenching is becoming more viable, so I believe plans to start delivering to some areas through that are moving ahead.

dylan604 3y ago
This aerial deployment maybe cheaper, but there is on going rent for having your line on someone else's poles. I have no knowledge of those rental agreements other than they exist. I wonder if the trenching style deployment also has some sort of agreement with the city?? Whenever I do see the trenching teams installing fiber lines, I'm always curious why such a small amount is being installed. I know there are many many fiber strands in the "cable" they are burying, but why just the one. Every connection needs a pair, so how ever many strands are in that "cable", there's half that number of connections.
- kbenson 3y ago
  > This aerial deployment maybe cheaper, but there is on going rent for having your line on someone else's poles. I don't think it's much, if anything, depending on the location. My understanding is it's governed by public use policies, since it's public infrastructure. I do know it requires some work for those putting more infrastructure on there to figure out the new load and stress and submit plans for required work, and sometimes poles are identified that are degraded to the point that it requires replacement or retrofitting, but I can't recall whether that's a burden taken by the public utility, the company looking to utilize the space, it's shared, or it's situational and depends. > I wonder if the trenching style deployment also has some sort of agreement with the city?? Whenever I do see the trenching teams installing fiber lines, I'm always curious why such a small amount is being installed. You do need to get permits in both cases. I think microtrenching is easier to get permitted because it causes less issues with the road. You're cutting a line an inch or so wide, so there's less worry about car tires compacting the filling material and making the road bumpy. Since it's deep but not wide, it could also be they're stacking multiple runs one on top of each other, which at any one point in time may look like a very small amount being inserted (I don't know, not my department). > Every connection needs a pair, so how ever many strands are in that "cable", there's half that number of connections. Depending on what you mean by "connection", they don't. Fiber strands are split out with optical splitters, one or more times, so a single strand back to the CO can handle multiple actual installation locations (but not too many). Planning out how many you allow generally and how much you'll allow max is a balancing act. Sometimes you deliver to a building with multiple units and you don't want to drop a line to every unit but you don't want to serve twenty units off a single strand that might be split once upstream already).

dylan604 3y ago

This aerial deployment maybe cheaper, but there is on going rent for having your line on someone else's poles. I have no knowledge of those rental agreements other than they exist. I wonder if the trenching style deployment also has some sort of agreement with the city?? Whenever I do see the trenching teams installing fiber lines, I'm always curious why such a small amount is being installed. I know there are many many fiber strands in the "cable" they are burying, but why just the one. Every connection needs a pair, so how ever many strands are in that "cable", there's half that number of connections.

kbenson 3y ago
> This aerial deployment maybe cheaper, but there is on going rent for having your line on someone else's poles. I don't think it's much, if anything, depending on the location. My understanding is it's governed by public use policies, since it's public infrastructure. I do know it requires some work for those putting more infrastructure on there to figure out the new load and stress and submit plans for required work, and sometimes poles are identified that are degraded to the point that it requires replacement or retrofitting, but I can't recall whether that's a burden taken by the public utility, the company looking to utilize the space, it's shared, or it's situational and depends. > I wonder if the trenching style deployment also has some sort of agreement with the city?? Whenever I do see the trenching teams installing fiber lines, I'm always curious why such a small amount is being installed. You do need to get permits in both cases. I think microtrenching is easier to get permitted because it causes less issues with the road. You're cutting a line an inch or so wide, so there's less worry about car tires compacting the filling material and making the road bumpy. Since it's deep but not wide, it could also be they're stacking multiple runs one on top of each other, which at any one point in time may look like a very small amount being inserted (I don't know, not my department). > Every connection needs a pair, so how ever many strands are in that "cable", there's half that number of connections. Depending on what you mean by "connection", they don't. Fiber strands are split out with optical splitters, one or more times, so a single strand back to the CO can handle multiple actual installation locations (but not too many). Planning out how many you allow generally and how much you'll allow max is a balancing act. Sometimes you deliver to a building with multiple units and you don't want to drop a line to every unit but you don't want to serve twenty units off a single strand that might be split once upstream already).