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A New Neutral, Long-Haul Fiber Network

Posted by kdawson on from the shaking-up-the-neighborhood dept.

techclicker sends word on the ambitious plans of Allied Fiber to disrupt the long-haul business in the US. The company is embarking on the first phase of a planned six-phase build-out of dark fiber, towers, and co-lo facilities ringing the US. The first three phases are budgeted at $670M; the last three are not yet laid out in detail (announcement, PDF). Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in 2010. Allied's business model of selling wholesale bandwidth to all comers is in sharp contrast to that of incumbents such as AT&T, who won't sell backhaul to potential competitors. "Allied is deploying a 432-count, long-haul cable coupled with the 216-count, short-haul cable that will be a composite of Single-Mode and Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted fibers. Allied Fiber has implemented a new, multi-duct design for intermediate access to the long-haul fiber duct through a parallel short-haul fiber duct all along the route. This enables all points between the major cities, including wireless towers and rural networks, to gain access to the dark fiber. In addition, the Allied Fiber neutral colocation facilities, located approximately every 60 miles along the route, accommodate and encourage a multi-tenant interconnection environment integrated with fiber that does not yet exist in the United States on this scale."

9 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmmm....Can someone explain...... by Immostlyharmless · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What this might mean to me as a cable user? Anything at all? Will I be able to buy access to this? or?

    1. Re:Hmmmm....Can someone explain...... by UnderCoverPenguin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In my area, the cable and telephone cables are strung on the electric utility's poles. Several years ago, within a month of the one cable operator's exclusive franchise expiring, the 2nd cable operator extended its cables into my neighborhood. As for getting another ISP, the county, in its most recent news letter, claims it is still soliciting bids, but there have been no submissions.

      (Not that having 2 (3 including the phone company) ISPs has actually provided competition. The internet (and TV) service rates from both companies (as well as the phone company) are the same - as well as the yearly rate increase. And the switch-over discount is now only for the 1st 3 months - assuming I make a 12 month commitment. The utility board just says there is no hard evidence of collusion.)

      --
      Don't try to out wierd me, three-eyes. I get stranger things than you, free with my breakfast cereal. --Zaphod Beeblebr
    2. Re:Hmmmm....Can someone explain...... by phyrexianshaw.ca · · Score: 2, Interesting

      to what, ONE computer? that's not a network. that's barely even "networking". that an extension cable. :P

      I was stupidly going to mention that it's silly that people still run 100MbE in homes.. but if you've only got an extension going to a 10Mb internet connection: why bother, right?

      every customer of mine get's an ESXi server with some horsepower, a FXS/FXO, a 15/2Mb shaw pipe, a pair of GbE lines run to each room of the house, a used cisco 3725, a Linksys SRW-2024 (unless they have more than 11 rooms), and each jack finished. (I even hand out a few free hand made and GbE cert'ed patch cables.)

      but then again, most of them USE the equipment. it's been a while since I DIDN'T help somebody with the setup afterwards.

      people often then bring in a virtual asterisk instance, with an IP trunk and a DID, and I run the pair out to the house phone bix, and teach the basics of how to replace hard drives in the box incase they go.

      but I am a nerd. and I guess I hang out with nerds. :P

  2. Is this a joke? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    The guy in charge of it is named "Newby".

  3. 100Mb/s for pennies by viking80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The single mode, Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted fibers is of course optimized for DWDM. That means that a buyer can put at least 128 colors in the fiber, each with 10Gb/s. With 423 fibers in the bundle, that adds up to 0.5Pb/s.

    With 10x oversubscription, this will supply 541 million homes with 100Mb/s broadband each.

    That should cover all of the americas with 100 million is USA, 46 million in Brazil, and 12 million in Canada.

    The cost for each household should be pennies.

    --
    don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
  4. Heard it all before by mschuyler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Remember Level 3? There's a whole lot of dark fiber already in the ground that is obsolete and will never be lit up. Level 3 has conduit and fiber in place all over the globe. Before "The Fall" it was trading near $100 per share. Now it's $1.25. So no, I wouldn't buy stock in this venture.

    --
    How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
    1. Re:Heard it all before by chill · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, the first phase of this project is supposed to connect New York to Chicago and Ashburn, VA. Level 3's headquarters in in Ashburn, VA. So, you might be on to something.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  5. Re:Queue lawsuits in three, two... by grcumb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I doubt Allied cares who leases the bandwidth. And I would be surprised if they managed to build more than the combined purchasing power of the incumbents can afford to lease.

    All true, of course, but here's the cool part:

    If the incumbents were to buy out Allied's entire capacity, they'd effectively be funding it to build more.

    Given that capitalisation is the hardest part of the roll-out process, having your competitors effectively subsidising the growth of your network as part of a plan to make you fail... surely, that would provide at least a few moments of delightful schadenfreude.

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  6. Good for Allied! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This could go a long way toward reducing costs and improving performance. The FCC or Congress should long ago have required mandatory "open access" leasing of backhaul. In other countries, open access has been directly correlated with lower prices and better performance.