 IridiumPremium
join:2003-04-02
Los Angeles, CA
 ·DSL EXTREME
1 edit | reply to FLECOM
Re: Wireless is the future... Yeah that's true. I wonder if there are any fiber cables out here....and whats up with it costing so much to deploy the fiberoptics? i heard someone say its like $1000 a square foot to install them! Thats highway robbery. Isn't it just making a conduit on the ground and shoving the cable down there? And they can install cable tv lines easily, so why cant they do the same with fiber optics(I dont know if cable is underground or above ground). I heard in Japan they use robots to tunnel fiber through the sewer systems, are there any places in the US that are doing that? Freakin Los Angeles, so behind the times.
/me moves to San Francisco |
 spgGrrrr
join:2001-10-31
NOT Texas! | fiber is expensive to place because when you place it, the pulling tension must be limited or you'll pull the fibers apart. The tensile strength is not all that high. In addition, while copper is placed typically in six or seven hundred foot sections, it is not uncommon to place a 5,000 or even 10,000 foot section.
one of the ways it's done is to literally blow it down the innerduct (a smaller conduit placed with others inside the traditional duct under the street) with air pressure.
So it takes special equipment to do this and it's not cheap. Add to that the fact that a lot of the fiber equipment has a shorter lifespan than the copper equipment because of obsolescence.
I see obstacles to placing in other utilities' pipelines such as "square corners" versus radii, etc. Also, I could envision a tangled mess in the sewers as additional fibers are placed, and just how is a camera-bot going to travel down the pipes for inspections? Abandoned pipes may work, but I don't see using active ones.
It may work, but sometimes I wonder if these are merely pie in the sky ideas or an attempt to con me out of my money. |
