Andrew Gallo wrote:
On 7/21/2014 2:58 PM, Mikael Abrahamsson wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jul 2014, William Herrin wrote:
The only exception I see to this would be if localities were
constrained to providing point to point and point to multipoint
communications infrastructure within the locality on a reasonable
and non-discriminatory basis. The competition that would foster on
the services side might outweigh the damage on the infrastructure
side. Like public roads facilitate efficient transportation and
freight despite the cost and potholes, though that's an imperfect
simile.
While I might not agree with the parts of your email you cut out, I
would definitely like to chime in on this part. Muni fiber should be
exactly that, muni *fiber*. Point to point fiber optic single mode
fiber cabling, aggregating thousands of households per location,
preferrably tens of thousands.
It's hard to go wrong in this area, it either works or it doesn't,
and in these aggregation nodes people can compete with several
different technologies, they can use PON, they can use active
ethernet, they can provide corporate 10GE connections if they need
to, they can run hybrid/fiber coax, they can run point-to-point 1GE
for residential. Anything is possible and the infrastructure is
likely to be as viable in 30 years as it is day 1 after installation.
Agree 100%. Layer-1 infrastructure is a high-cost, long term
investment with little 'value-add' You don't see too many companies
clamoring to put in new water or sewer pipes. Treat fiber the same way.
The money is in content, which is why we're seeing ISP and media
consolidation.
One could argue that conduit is probably enough - it's digging up the
streets that's the real expense (different story if everything is on
poles, of course).
Personally, I generally argue that there are tremendous efficiencies if
you provision at layer-2 -- how many college campuses or business parks
that run redundant wires through the walls?
My favorite model is Grant County, WA - where the public utility
district strung fiber everywhere. They light the fiber at layer 2, but
they only sell wholesale virtual nets. They've got lots of competitive
telephone, internet, and video providers riding the net. Seems to work
for them. I believe they provisioned GigE 10 years ago. (Note that
these guys are serious players - they were running a network of
hyrdo-electric dams, and power distribution, long before they got into
telecom. Now that's REAL operations. :-)
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
