Re: [PLUG] [OT] Fiber in PA

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On 07 Dec, 2004, at 17:27, Alexander Birch wrote:
> Does anyone know if Verizon has fiber in PA? Better yet, does anyone  
> have it?
>
> My brother says he's seen flyers for them, while  the two lackeys at
> Verizon said no.

There are several answers to this question -- they depend upon what you  
are actually asking.

Verizon has lots of fibre in Pennsylvania, and has had for many years  
-- at least 15 that I know of.

However, they do (or at least did) not lease "dark fibre." They will  
(because of tariffs) instead lease you a fibre based "T" circuit.

This kind of fibre is generally available to any commercial  
establishment in the Commonwealth, although not all by any means. (It's  
generally available because you can almost always pay "enough" that  
they will install it if you want to pay for it.)

Verizon also has, what is known as, Fibre to the "node." "Nodes" are  
those "green boxes" you find in neighborhoods... like the one Doug  
Crompton has been having fun getting DSL through. This particular kind  
of fibre circuit happens to be randomly found throughout the  
Commonwealth. This is often referred to as "Fibre to the Curb."

The third answer has to deal with "The Last Mile" -- "Fibre to the  
Home." (Or as Verizon calls it "Fibre to the Premises".)

Verizon just recently announced a 5 to 10 year construction program to  
provide Fibre to the Premises to roughly 85% of its "subscriber base".

http://newscenter.verizon.com/kit/fiber/? 
PROACTIVE_ID=cecdc9cfc6c7cbc9c9c5cecfcfcfc5cecec9cac9c7c9c8cecfc5cf

(Or navigate from the news center to the press kit for "Fibre to the  
Premises.")

Much of the activity in Fibre to the Home in Pennsylvania has to do  
with Verizon's commitment to the Commonwealth (i.e. deals cut with the  
Governor's office and legislators) to provide "High speed" Internet  
everywhere in the the Commonwealth... by a deadline that was extended  
in last weeks' bill that involved the Philadelphia Wireless project.

Today, there are, I think, specific communities in Bucks and Chester  
Counties which have or will soon have Fibre to the Premises -- I would  
assume these to be "new developments," but I don't know.

In competition, various Power Companies in the state, Execlan (PECO)  
and Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) that I know of have experimented  
with Fibre to the home.  Unless things changed about 4 years ago when  
L3 was laying fibre all over the place, PECO has the largest Fibre  
plant in the Commonwealth. They have bundles of fibre connecting all of  
their substations, which as yet, they have not yet done anything with.  
[Can you say "IP over AC Power Lines? The technology, broadband over  
power lines, is not quite "there yet," but is in beta testing in at  
least three locations in the US. The FCC adopted rules back in October  
to permit the technology to be offered by power companies.]
http://www.powerlineworld.com/powerlineintro.html


T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
# Beige G3 - Rev A motherboard - 768 Meg
# Flat-panel iMac (2.1) 800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg
# PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg]- Tru64 5.1a
# XP1000  [Alpha EV6]
magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com
whmagill@gmail.com


___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug