Bell Canada → Signifigance of a new CSP?

Hey creed3020... we must be local PIs or something since both of us are able to recognize pictures of our extended neighbourhoods quite easily; I see that's 190 Goodrich Drive!

My guess is that CSP installation has something to do with the fact that all the upscale homes in nearby Hidden Valley are currently all stuck without FTTN and limited to lowest-grade 5Mbps service; everything in that neighbouring residential area is connected to this JWI, that's on an F1 all the way back to the Kingsway Drive wirecentre. In fact, I used to live there years ago (in one of the modest older homes, not the million dollar mansions) and still have the exact wire trace I was shockingly given by Bell's executive office of customer relations, when I complained loudly about being ineligible for the 4.5km range-limited old Nortel 1MM DSL back in 1999 when it was first introduced. The JWI that's located only about 500 feet from that new CSP is on an F1 distribution line that runs over 5km by this exact path:
1) Kingsway CO to 9th Ave.
2) 9th Ave. to Greenfield Ave.
3) Greenfield Ave. to Traynor Ave.
4) Traynor Ave. to Wilson Ave.
5) Wilson Ave. to Goodrich Dr.
6) Goodrich Dr. to Hidden Valley Rd.
I'm pretty sure that trace runs partially on aerial plant, too, since it's at least 40 years old.

Another reason for the CSP might be due to the backroom influence of The City of Kitchener, given that their huge consolidated maintenance facility is across the street -- although I think the City uses the former Fibretech/Atria (now Rogers; shudder!) for their WAN stuff. There's also a gigantic new national distribution warehouse being built just nextdoor for Fastenal, and maybe they requested high-grade fibre service.

In any case, that CSP had better not mean they're putting in FTTH for anyone in Hidden Valley or I'll be quite annoyed since I'm not a resident and unaware of any FTTH activity anywhere in K-W

Kudos to you for picking out that location so quickly.

I too have a gut feeling that this HAS to be related to the Hidden Valley community. There was additional vault work at the intersection of Goodrich Dr and Wabanaki Dr. So I get the feeling the necessary fibre strands are now in place to install one or more 7330's in that area for FTTN. I'm surprised if they wouldn't just skip to FTTH considering the "clientele" back there, considering that the cost of a FTTH connection would just be a rounding error for the majority of home owners.

Thanks for pointing out that JWI. I see it on the Streetview clearly. That routing of the F1 pair makes perfect sense in a world of 5Mb DSL. This SE corner of Kitchener as we both know has been slow to come online to the offering of VDSL.

That Fastenal facility may also have something to do with it as well. I'll have to see if it becomes obvious if anything is being routed in that direction on a future walk through.

I can also add that the heavy fibre/coaxial bundles seen attached to the hydro poles in that heavy industrial strip are, not surprisingly, owned by Rogers. In the mid-1990s, I inquired why, after they'd extended their trunk lines along Goodrich Dr. (and buried in conduit alongside the former railroad spur, all the way to King St. E. where it emerges back to aerial plant) cable TV was still not made available in the 'older' Hidden Valley area, and their absurd written response from engineering personnel at their nearby 81 Grand Crest Place office was that their average network expansion costs were approximately $20,000 per kilometre, even though at the same time, Kitchener Utilities brought a gasmain the required extra 0.6km to service a dozen households, completely out of their own volition.

Telco network evolution can be very odd; I'm fairly certain that the three unfortunate households on the northwest leg of Hidden Valley Rd. are served by a long, archaic F2 distribution cable that actually runs under Highway 8 and back to a pole-mounted JWI on Cameo Dr. -- probably due to former road alignments (pre-1960s) when Block Line Rd. was actually where Cameo/Hidden Valley/Fairway is, now!

Anyway, it's probably not related, but as you're likely aware, Bell coincidentally has a rather large fleet maintenance yard one block away @ 998 Wilson Ave., and maybe they want to "flood" the neighbourhood with fibre connectivity so, y'know, their auto mechanics can watch Fibe TV while they work

The CSP could actually be for the industrial customers in the area. There is a commercial strip in St. Catharines on Ontario Street where Bell installed fibre and a CSP rather than a 7330 like elsewhere in town. Bell won't install a CSP for one single customer who requests fibre - they just run it and splice it off instead. They use these in lieu of copper for PSTN and DSL. There has to be customers nearby, and that size CSP is capable of handling 200 customers.

How long has it been there? It's already locked with an identification tag meaning the splitter are installed, and the fibre is most likely already lit up and live. We've had dozens of CSPs installed here in Niagara over the summer as part of a FTTH overlay and none of them are yet locked or live.

It's been there for about a month. I would not at all be surprised if it were live based on the numbers of time vehicles have been there with the cabinet open and wires running back into the truck.

I've been following your thread Gone and it's partly why I posted this up, in case similar efforts were starting here in KW.

The wires going into the truck would be for the splicing of splitters, which would explain why it's locked and marked.

It's weird how things work though, we've had CSPs sitting here in Fort Erie since spring that aren't yet live, but there was one in NOTL that was installed in the ground, splitters installed and locked up in just four days.

The City of Kitchener just posted an RFP for an ISP as they have "reached the end of our existing service contract" -- gotta wonder if Bell knew this was opportunity was coming when they installed that CSP directly across the street from the City's huge operations facility. AFAIK, they currently use Rogers (formerly Atria, formerly Fibretech) since when I use the free public wi-fi at community centres, the IP address resolves to Rogers blocks.
A little off-topic, but I found it rather curious, reading through the City's bid opportunity, that they currently only have a 30MB connection. Huh?? You mean all of City Hall shares a puny 30MB Internet connection, and they're only willing to purchase a 100MB connection going forward? That seems rather small, to me, for a ten storey building with hundreds of offices.

Not really if it is for work, email and some web stuff. No netflix and porn for them.

^^ Mreh, I'm not so sure you can dismiss their bandwidth requirements as trivial. Beyond City Hall and the consolidated maintenance facility that together encompasses thousands of employees, the municipal government also operates firehalls, pools, arenas, golf courses, stadium/auditorium, farmers market facility, etc., and they also provide free public wi-fi all over the place.
I know it's sort of like comparing apples to oranges, but consider that the University of Waterloo has redundant 2Gbps connections to the Internet, and that makes The City of Kitchener's proposed "upgrade" from 0.03Gbps to 0.1Gbps downright laughable.

Hmm, some interesting Q&A now posted about the City of Kitchener's RFP.

Question #3: Who is your current ISP?
Response: Rogers.
Question #4: What are you currently paying for your internet connection?
Response: The City currently pays $2,034 per month including taxes

I'm surprised they're willing to disclose this so easily.

Comparing the connectivity needs of a what amounts to nothing more than an office to a university that acts as an ISP to thousands of students is kind of laughable, too.