Optical Fiber for a Small Community?

wildsurf asks: "I live in a small community of about 70 homes, which has been on a septic-tank system for many years, soon to be replaced with a sewer system. Not too exciting, except that this opens up the possibility of laying fiber-optic cable alongside the sewer lines, which could add significant value to the properties, as well as ultra-broadband. (It seems a shame to dig up all the trenches and NOT lay cable.) DSL doesn't work out here, and the cable provider is a bit sketchy, but there's an ultra-high-bandwidth pipe running nearby that we could possibly tap into. Anyway, I figure this would be the perfect audience to ask for recommendations, since I'm not quite sure how to approach this. The homeowner's meeting is next month, and I'd like to know what to suggest to them. Thanks in advance!" Well, if your local media company isn't going to wire your community, the community may just have to foot that bill itself. What would it need to do: what forms would they need to complete; what contractors would they need to hire (especially when piggy-backing on other municipal works); and most importantly, how much would something like this cost?

Comments

General Ideas

[Sharper]

Well, I don't know any of the specifics (it'll be province/state specific anyway), but in the interests of starting a discussion of it: you'd have to at the very least:

First, find out who owns everything involved: The trench, the land it's going through, the pipes, the trunk you want to join, etc. If all are small enough entities you may be able to deal with them directly in which case it may be as simple as hiring a lawyer to write up contracts and hammer on the details of service/etc.

You may need to start up a company/corporate entity to handle the ownership/etc of everything.. this might also help with your smoke-and-mirrors convincing of those involved.. if they're approached by "Waterloo broadband services" (or whatever you call your company) for permission to use their trench/backbone, they may react better than to your community council (which may well be a corporate entity, but still sounds.. well.. grass rootish ;)

Anyone know specific details on any of the above steps?

Consider:

[littlerubberfeet]

You need to finance this stuff. Fiber optic cable in conduit form is not the same stuff above the cieling in your office. and a town of 70 people? Is there demand for high speed internet? also the nearby 'pipe' you could tap into, are you allowed to?

If you want to do this, it will take a LOT of effort. But, if there is demand, then you should have no problem running fibre to a termination box at each person's house. Finanaces: you pay? who retains the rights for the fibre, and the equipment at the end? Do you want to become an ISP?

Look at ashland fiber network.

[lizardboy]

The Small rural arts town in southern Oregon did this. They made the Ashland fiber network. Provides Internet access to homes and businesses plus cable TV. It is all community owned. See http://www.ashlandfiber.net

lizard boy

OT: Does fiber have to run underground?

[Anonymous Coward]

This probably has a very simple answer, but for some odd reason, everytime I read about someone installing fiber or having a problem with fiber (like a backhoe cutting something), they talk about where the fiber is underground or in underground piping. I know a lot of new developments, both residential and commercial, have their wiring (cable, television, electrical) all below ground. But can you run fiber above ground, e.g. strung along telephone poles and then run them into buildings, or are the reinforcing strands and jackets of the fiber cables too fragile to handle high wind and storm situations? I guess I'm talking about single mode fiber, the stuff that can run 12 km (some 20 km, some even much further than that).