William H. Magill on 9 Dec 2004 14:18:02 -0000


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Re: [PLUG] [OT] Fiber in PA


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


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