Are America's Big Telecom Companies Suppressing Fiber? (salon.com)

Salon just published a new interview with Susan Crawford, the author of "Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution -- And Why America Might Miss It." Crawford has spent years studying the business of these underground fiber optic cables that make fast internet possible. As it turns out, the internet infrastructure situation in the United States is almost hopelessly compromised by the oligopolistic telecom industry, which, due to lack of competition and deregulation, is hesitant to invest in their aging infrastructure... This is going to pose a huge problem for the future, Crawford warns, noting that politicians as well as the telecom industry are largely inept when it comes to prepping us for a well-connected future...

"The decay started in 2004 when -- maybe out of gullibility, maybe out of naivety, maybe out of calculation -- then-chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, now the head of cable association -- was persuaded that the telcos would battle it out with the cable companies, that their cable modem services would battle it out with wireless, and all of that competition would do a much better job than any regulatory structure could at ensuring that every American had a cheap and fantastic connection of the internet. That's just turned out that's just not true. Since then, he deregulated the entire sector -- and as a result, we got this very stagnant status quo where in most urban areas -- usually the local cable monopoly has a lock in the market and can charge whatever it wants for whatever type of quality services they're providing, leaving a lot of people out."
"Because Americans don't travel," she adds, "you don't get the sense of what a third-world country the U.S. is becoming when it comes to communications."

Comments

I build fiber (in my spare time)

[jaredmauch]

I can tell you much of the problem is about how to retrofit existing areas. New builds get fiber, but anything that existed before 2014 or so is a legacy build. I live in an area that was built in the late 90s and there's no hope of getting anything fast out here so I'm doing it myself. The costs are reasonable (about 30-50k/mile) but the majority of the issue is in permitting to go underground. (If you go on poles, it's actually just as expensive as underground in many cases due to annual fees on the poles, engineering studies, tree clearing fees, make-ready, etc.. Plus then you need to own a bucket truck and other expenses).

The wholesale cost of the bandwidth is nothing, it's all about the cost to put the stuff in the ground and the permit process. Expect 30% of your costs (and 90% of build-time) to be constrained by engineering and permitting costs. The rest of that 30-50k USD/mile cost is the labor and materials needed. You need to put in a place every 2-3 homes you pass to deliver service. There are a lot of people doing this in rural areas to close the gap but most people have only heard of the incumbents so there's a market awareness problem. Many people that are WISPs (see WISPA.org) are now moving into the fiber world, but the capital costs are around 50-250k to get all the equipment you need for underground construction.

Rough costs if you care: 35c/ft for conduit, 7-10c/ft for fiber (once you get large counts like 96 count, it's closer to 1c/strand/foot) and $100-300 for a pedestal or hand-hole, plus splice trays, etc. $1/foot (linear) * $1/foot (depth) for your route if it's not complicated. Costs go up in urban environments very quickly if you have a lot of requirements or other utilities to dodge.

Stop using NN to hide a lack of service.

[AHuxley]

Your only telco in town can't offer 1000/1000 services?
Ask them for a 1000/100 service.
When they say no ask them again for 1000/1000 service for the town.
Plan for community broadband.
Ask for 1000/1000 around the town again.
Wait for the NN telco to say no. That wireline is going to stay. That is the NN approved network is the network they have to offer as a monopoly telco.
Tell the city your granted telco monopoly no longer deserves any monopoly protection as they are doing nothing of value with the monopoly.
Get community broadband working.
Connect the community at 1000/1000 when they request that type of connection.

Re:Third-world country

[houghi]

And here I am, living in Communist Belgium, where I am forced to walk around with an ID (even though I was never asked to show it. Why am I paying the police if they can not even do that?) and when I need one or need a renewal, I just make an apointment online for thursday evening, walk in and walk out after 15 minutes. The repeat it after a month to pick it up. That goes even faster.

And voting is is an obligation, not a privelage, so every Belgian MUSTR vote when there are elections. They are held on Sunday. Not voting can cause a fine (or nothing, depending on the city and how the judge feels)

The Communist Governement even made it so that EVERYBODY can read the information on the card, as it is a card with a chip. They even open sourced it.
Price is 18 EUR (0 EUR for your first one when you are 12) and are valid 5 years.

And Belgiumis not the only country where you must have an ID. It is not even the only country where voting is a must.

This ID will be used to verify that you voted once. You will be on the list and been told where you have to vote. You show up, they ID you, you vote. That's it.

They could increase the yearly city tax with 4.00 EUR per person and get to the same result.

It is crazy that many countries in the world have already solved the things the US seem to struggle with.