Fiber optic cable to towers. Why underground

[Mobilesolutions]

In my previous neighborhood, all fiber was outdoors. It was run on telephone poles to the premises. During harsh storms, wiring would regularly fall but there would be little to no service disruption. My new neighborhood has everything underground but then brought outside onto telephone poles once it reaches the home, but it is in the backyard as to keep the neighborhood in pristine condition because it is land marked.

That's when it becomes acceptable to me. When its in your backyard whether underground or if engineered properly on large poles.

[Bob Newhart]

Why underground?? hmm...

 

 

At my house, we have both underground power and phone lines. We paid extra to get it to be underground to all our houses from the substation.

In the winter I take a chain saw with me, as it is normal to spend time sawing through fallen trees and branches to get home.

[Mobilesolutions]

Why underground?? hmm...

 

 

At my house, we have both underground power and phone lines. We paid extra to get it to be underground to all our houses from the substation.

 

 

That's exactly why. Fiber deployment is permanent infrastructure.. Or should be.

[supersanborn]

As a Floridian I can tell you I really valued living in areas where the power lines were underground during storm season. We'd suffer momentary flickers rather than full-on outages that sometimes lasted for days. Sadly we no longer live in an area with buried power lines, but have been lucky to only have one 6 hour outage.

[AMejia1976]

As a Floridian I can tell you I really valued living in areas where the power lines were underground during storm season. We'd suffer momentary flickers rather than full-on outages that sometimes lasted for days. Sadly we no longer live in an area with buried power lines, but have been lucky to only have one 6 hour outage.

Fingers crossed. Knock on wood... etc etc etc

[jamesinclair]

What CA cities are mandated underground facilities? I never heard of such a thing. I know its a requirement in new subdivisions in most places. AT&T Just pulled aerial fiber couple of months ago in front of my place. I wish it was underground. I have 3 giant copper cable bundles  overhead directly in from of my place

 

Funny thing is I was in Europe last summer and some of  Cities with  300-500 year old buildings have  no over head utilities at all and these buildings were around before electricity was discovered.

 

In Fresno and Clovis even the local utility boxes have to be underground now. Nothing above ground.

[JohnHovah]

In Fresno and Clovis even the local utility boxes have to be underground now. Nothing above ground.

Many areas of California are now like this.  I believe there must be some give in the lines (that are not copper) considering that we are in earthquake territory and armageddon does not fall upon us every time we have a moderate earthquake.

[jayq330]

I know in Brooklyn, which is the most populous borough/county in all of NYC, half of its fiber and coax infrastructure is still above ground on telephone poles.

You gotta be joking.

[Paynefanbro]

You gotta be joking.

 

So serious. Some of it runs through my backyard.

[S4GRU]

There is a lot of above ground fiber, stretching pole to pole like Cable TV and power.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[jayq330]

How long ago was this, I mean I live by Manhattan, been in downtown Brooklyn & and queens, you sure they're not coax? Verizon FiOS and other conspiracies just tire a street apart to add more fiber optic lines. I think the last place I saw writes on poles was in a quiet and neighborhood. I'm guessing their are in some area but if I were to guess from what I've seen maybe just 20% of cables are on poles. But most of the work even regular coax is undergoing, sewers maybe, but when they reach a point where they need a connection for a building they have to did into the ground to get the lines inside the building.

[Paynefanbro]

Prett

 

How long ago was this, I mean I live by Manhattan, been in downtown Brooklyn & and queens, you sure they're not coax? Verizon FiOS and other conspiracies just tire a street apart to add more fiber optic lines. I think the last place I saw writes on poles was in a quiet and neighborhood. I'm guessing their are in some area but if I were to guess from what I've seen maybe just 20% of cables are on poles. But most of the work even regular coax is undergoing, sewers maybe, but when they reach a point where they need a connection for a building they have to did into the ground to get the lines inside the building.

 

As soon as now. My Aunt's house is currently connected to FiOS. The fiber is run from the pole to her house and run along the house to mask it and then it connect to a box of some sort. This is in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan have significantly higher population density than other parts of the city and thus, can't really have telephone poles litter the street like other parts of NYC can. Nearly all of the infrastructure in those parts is underground. 

[jayq330]

Prett

 

 

As soon as now. My Aunt's house is currently connected to FiOS. The fiber is run from the pole to her house and run along the house to mask it and then it connect to a box of some sort. This is in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan have significantly higher population density than other parts of the city and thus, can't really have telephone poles litter the street like other parts of NYC can. Nearly all of the infrastructure in those parts is underground.

Oh OK,I'm y the esteem river by Manhattan, FiOS is the only option we have here, not good business to monopolize, building is brand new & you have only FiOS, they know their all we have so their days is not what they commercialize at all. But yeah FiOS is definitely fiber optics. It's still weird that it's advice ground I never seen that. From the stat it goes into my buildings basement, from the basement ever floor in has their own fiber connection to these giant closets filled with server like machines... It's all new to me since I've only had twc, roadrunner before.

[centermedic]

Fiber for the most part will follow the same pole vs underground conventions that other utility lines have used mostly because it just makes sense. The legacy telephone and electric companies did the math regarding underground or pole mounted and their decisions are reflected in the fact that you see utility poles or you don't. When cable came around it followed these same routes because again, it just made sense. 

[S4GRU]

Utilities will install the cheapest way allowed. Fiber is rarely an exception. The reason why utilities started going underground to begin with is because zoning, local ordinances and later even states started requiring it.

 

So practically all utility services, including fiber, are now below grade on new construction (except still in truly rural areas). Underground utilities have been the norm since the 70's in most parts of the country.

 

However, there are still millions of places in this country with utility infrastructure above ground in neighborhoods pre-1980's. All the easements are in place for these pole strung electricity, cable TV, telephone and now even fiber.

 

It is way too much trouble to try to go through older neighborhoods and establish new easements across 100's or 1000's of properties to dig a new spur fiber line. And then the cost would be sky high too. However, if you go along the existing utility pole easements and stay in the air, you can feed these existing neighborhoods fiber quickly and with a manageable cap ex spend.

 

Otherwise, these older neighborhoods would likely never see fiber.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[radem]

There is a lot of above ground fiber, stretching pole to pole like Cable TV and power.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

In the Chicago area most fiber run in the winter is at least temporarily run on poles above ground.  Sometimes they go back and bury it when the ground is no longer frozen and sometimes they don't.

[CaptainSlow]

From a signal attenuation standpoint, I would think laying the fiber underground allows it to remain straight as much as possible, as opposed to on a pole, where it would sag under gravity as well as due to snow, wind, birds, etc. I'm no expert on fiber optics but imagine the more a fiber bends, more is the signal loss due to dispersion, etc.

[S4GRU]

From a signal attenuation standpoint, I would think laying the fiber underground allows it to remain straight as much as possible, as opposed to on a pole, where it would sag under gravity as well as due to snow, wind, birds, etc. I'm no expert on fiber optics but imagine the more a fiber bends, more is the signal loss due to dispersion, etc.

 

It's a good point, and there is some truth to that.  Over very long distances it could be noticeable.  But given that fiber is typically just strung above ground in last mile connections, it is hardly a factor.  The bandwidth used in last mile connections are typically way, way below fiber maximum capacity, so that a small reduction in total speed or capacity would be completely unnoticeable.  And certainly 100's of times better than the best copper solution in its place.

 

Robert

[COZisBack]

My thought was, when it's on "telephone poles" it's more subject to an idiot drunk driver taking out the back-haul.

 

Edit: I actually already brought this up in the thread. Go figure.

 

Definitely don't want drunk ass at 3:00AM leaving the bar knocking out the network every chance he gets.

[irev210]

In my neighborhood, the poles carry electric and  coax cable for comcast and RCN.

 

Telephone and fiber is actually underground, oddly enough.

 

I don't see any fiber on the poles.

[pokefan02]

They have fiber both in the ground and on the poles here, and most of the time, they bring it from the poles to in ground pedestals for customer use

 

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