>----- Original Message ---- >From: Jared Mauch <ja...@puck.nether.net>
>I know, watching my local incumbent they are not replacing damaged copper with >fiber. I think they must have warehouses of it someplace. I can't imagine >that it is good to replace buried copper w/copper during the wintertime. If >you're out doing it, might as well *actually* install fiber in the conduit. >(Unless it's about unions/job protection for the copper guys). >- Jared (not saying unions are bad, but when you operate two assets and have a >different union for each, it can limit your potential significantly). One of the very hard things about running a large, geographically distributed layer 0/1 organization is managing the various and sundry physical cables from point to point. Replacing one bad span with a good span which is qualitatively different introduces a level of version control and management headache, and if done in a haphazard fashion can reduce the overall availability of the network. I don't know who your incumbent is, but it's reasonable to assume that they have some strategy for cable plant management which includes overall technology refresh at some point, with like-for-like replacement until then. Also, last I checked, the specs on "how to build a good layer 0/1 fiber infrastructure" were different than those for copper - because the capabilities are different, the network architecture has different optimizations available. This doesn't mean that the provider shouldn't be moving toward a large-scale fiber rollout - far from it! I just wanted to provide a reason why they might not want to do said rollout in a piecemeal fashion. David Barak Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise: http://www.listentothefranchise.com
