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Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana
 ·AT&T Southwest
| reply to nunya
Re: My Take on Lightspeed
said by nunya  :The existing plant is in no condition to meet the 25 Mbps that AT&T says it will need. You need perfect cable. It aint perfect....Call me crazy, but I think that would be better spent on an upgrade rather than a re-grade. No argument here -- but the fact is "big-mo" is in-play (and SBC forgot to hire me). FTTN is the name of the game for-now. Fortunately most of the suburban neighborhoods that will likely first see FTTN have been built in the last 20 years -- and have relatively good F2 pairs and terminals. The current round of line-conditioning at least proves that SBC has their eyes "wide-open" as to what they're getting into.
Sure we all wish SBC would do what Verizon is doing with FiOS -- but I'm resigned to the facts -- and the improvements that FTTN will bring. The cablecos need some heat -- and LightSpeed will do that.
My earlier technical treatise on a future fiber upgrade for FTTN only means I accept the years it will take to get there and the architecture applicable to an FTTN upgrade at that time. We can always hope for a fundamental breakthrough in physics in the meantime  )
Remember, buried conduit costs are the real enemy here -- not SBC. I'm hoping that the concept of a "pilot mole" takes-off and solves the cost problem. The pilot mole concept involves pushing a tiny projectile through soil -- under streets, sidewalks and driveways. The resulting hole is just big enough to drag a thick pull-wire in the reverse direction. That cable is attached to a 2" slug mole that is then dragged-back, compressing the soil, on-return, for conduit placement, while being reeled back to the pilot mole site. The holdup is that current "pilot moles" aren't steerable -- like directional drills. It'll be much cheaper than the traditional [$10/ft] directional drilling that Verizon is doing now.
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"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country" - and stop the NeoCons |
