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Starting a Local Fibre Co-Op?
swordsaintzero wonders: "I have seen several articles mentioning local co-ops implementing fiber. I am moving to a smaller town to take a position as a Solaris Administrator for a large university. After calling around, I found out the fastest bandwidth package available is half the speed of my previous package. For all of you Slashdot readers, who have worked on getting fibre implemented for your town through a co-op, what was involved in presenting it to the city government? What would be the best way to get the ball rolling on getting fiber for home use implemented?"
As we all saw during the "broadband revolution" of a few years ago (even when Taco couldn't get BB), the big cities get the coolest tech first. They also tend to get blown up first during wartimes, but that's a risk we just have to take.
So to answer one of your questions: What would be the best way to get the ball rolling on getting fiber for home use implemented? My answer would be: "Move to a big city".
I'm just a comedian though. Hopefully someone insightful will post a more insightful answer.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
'Cause frankly I don't believe it. A co-op to get DSL implemented on already laid dark cable is one thing. Most communities don't generally have dark fiber run to every residential address. If it's been laid it's being used. To create a co-op tasked with rolling out a community-wide installation of fiber to each doorstep, with or without the local government's help, would be an astronomically complex and time consuming task. Instead of trying to convince a town to fund such a fool's errand why not try convincing the university to subsidize business-class broadband at home in case you need to work from there ("If the system(s) go down at 3am I can get them back up and running faster if I can just log in from home instead of driving across town." etc...).
If the city were funding it, it wouldn't be a co-op, would it?
Another out-of-the-box answer to the question suggests itself, since the poster missed the other 50% of their former bandwidth: Get 2 lines and aggregrate.
Anyhow, if you want to share fiber to defray installation costs, just start talking to your neighbors about it. If you can get contiguous propery owners to collaborate, no right-of-way is needed, and it becomes much more practical. It's also a good way to get to know your neighbors. Probably, wireless point-to-point links will be a lot cheaper, however. Then suddenly you're a wireless ISP. Lots of folks are doing it.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Why the hell would you even want fiber to the doorstep? You realize how much it costs to terminate the stuff? You can get a much better price/performance ratio from SHDSL if you really need quite a bit of bandwidth (it'd still be excessive for home use). Otherwise, just go with regular DSL, it's good for at least 3 MBits.
If you can get contiguous propery owners to collaborate, no right-of-way is needed
Depending on your state laws, no right of way may be needed at all. Lots of states are so pro-development that they'll bend over backwards to help you take the land you need. Most will happily fine anyone who cuts your lines as well. I'm looking at 150' power lines in my back yard that got built despite rejecting the power companies offer, and despite any condemnation procedures. As a property owner, there's technically not a damn thing I can do about it.
Fudging by way of drainage ditches and easements can also go a long ways.
Probably, wireless point-to-point links will be a lot cheaper, however.
For a few points, maybe, but for a neighborhood, I doubt it. Towers and antennas add up quickly. In a neighborhood with reasonable density and reasonable take-up, fiber should be doable, and scales much better.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
I get my power from a co-op. Back in the 1930s the farmers in my area realized that they would not be served by any utility because there was no profit in them. So they got together and started a co-op and wired the county. We are now one of the fastest growing utilities in the nation (Minneapolis is growing right into our territory).
There are likely to be some old laws on the book in your state that you can fudge to help you. Have a lawyer look them up. You will need a lawyer before you get very far, so best is if you can find one to be a partner now, and hire him.
- Ashland Fiber Network http://www.ashlandfiber.net/ (Ashland,OR) is shared by all utilities in Ashland (population @ 21k) -- it is community owned
- The Portland,OR metro still doesn't have fiber access
- Verizon FIOS is not planned to be installed in the Portland metro for quite some time (no ETA)
- World Wide Packets business model is to provide the infrastructure for ISPs to provide fiber to the end user, but they don't work directly with end-users
- 6 years ago [Beaverton,OR], I had Telocity SDSL for $20/mo @ 802/802
- 3 years ago [Beaverton,OR], when I tried to sign up for 1.5/768 Verizon DSL, we found out (after they set us up and started charging for said speed) that the best we can get is 384/384 for $60/mo ($40 Line[Verizon] + $20 ISP [Aracnet]) because of a 26-gauge wire between me and the C.O. They also stated there is no intention to ever upgrade that line unless it is damaged. Of course, they wouldn't tell me where it was.
- A few months after talking with Speakeasy about the last bullet point, they sent me a letter saying that they could get me 6MB/768 over their fiber network without using Verizon's phone line. When I called them, they said that they couldn't because it still has to go over Verizon's line. Of course, they still wanted me to try to set it up, without installing a replacement for that 26-gauge wire.
All in all, I think Ashland has it made. Community-owned fiber network that the cable companies and phone companies have to pay to use -- and you don't HAVE to go through any one of them to get service from a 3rd party. I wish Beaverton would do that.http://www.google.com/profiles/malachid
That being said, one could easily provision linear fiber (non-ring) for a lot less, and if you and your neighbors care about speed, etc.. (sharing that mp3 server in your basement, or those trees keep getting in the way of the wireless) a short fiber run put in PVC or similar conduit outside buried not that far down (depending on how you want to do it) would provide high reliability over that short distance. A 3com 100BaseFX card costs roughly US$90, and cabling is not *that* expensive even for multiple pairs or outdoor/aerial cabling. Most of the cost is seen in adding connectors which range in cost as not anyone can go to home depot and get a cable crimper, connectors, or polisher. You may find the cost comparable to some more expensive wireless bridges or cheapos with nice cabling/antennas, but for reliability it's the way to go, and you're not too likely to need more expensive cabling unless you're going to do some fancy DWDM or other stuff over the short distance.
That being said, I may be soon using a power washer to dig a trench, or just doing it by hand with a shovel between me and my neighbor to deal with crappy wireless gear reliability.. This will let us communicate over a wired link without fear of the growing trees causing a problem. And the call to miss-dig is free. It also means that we can do fancier stuff in the future at faster than 100M and not have to worry about the limits of copper cabling as much.
Reminder to our readers, if you're going to go more than 2KM, you need single-mode fiber, you can't do it with multimode. You may also need to watch the type of optics you use (SR vs LR, etc..)