Muni fiber: L1 or L2?

Tue Feb 12 00:28:33 UTC 2013

On 11-Feb-13 15:24, Jay Ashworth wrote:
> From: "Stephen Sprunk" <stephen at sprunk.org>
>>> By having the city run L2 over our L1, we can accomplish that; unlike L3, I don't believe it actually needs to be a separate company; I expect most ISP business to be at L2; L1 is mostly an accomodation to potential larger ISPs who want to do it all themselves.
>> We have a philosophical disagreement here. I fully support public ownership of public ownership of "natural" monopolies, and the fiber plant itself (L1) certainly qualifies.
>>
>> However, running L2 (or L3) over that fiber is _not_ a natural monopoly, so I do _not_ support public ownership. At most, I could stomach a "provider of last resort" to guarantee resident access to useful services, in the IMHO unlikely event that only one (or zero) private players showed up, or a compelling need to provide some residents (eg. the elderly or indigent, schools, other public agencies, etc.) with below-cost services.
> I dunno; I tend to buy the arguments that there is a difference; as long as the L2 access is itself sold to comers at cost, including the internal accounting between the fiber and L2 sides of the house.

I don't see much of a difference in that respect between L2 and L3
services.  OTOH, I see a clear difference between L1 and L2/L3, as above.

> I don't even plan to offer quantity discounts.  :-)

Good.  That's one of the ways that big carriers claim to be playing by
the same rules as everyone else yet get away with substantially lower
costs than smaller competitors.  See also: the ARIN fee schedule.

>>> The L2 might end there, too, if I decide on outside ONTs, rather than an optical jackblock inside.
>> I think the ILECs got this part right: provide a passive NIU on the outside wall, which forms a natural demarc that the fiber owner can test to. If an L2 operator has active equipment, put it inside--and it would be part of the customer-purchased (or -leased) equipment when they turn up service.
> Yes, but that means the ISP has to drill holes in walls *and push fiber jumpers through them*; I'm not at all happy with that idea.

You mean their contract installers, who do the same thing today with
POTS, DSL, cable and satellite lines.  It'll probably be the same
people, even.

OTOH, an external NIU means the fiber company can install with zero
cooperation from any given property owner since no entry is required. 
Customers are going to need internal wiring done anyway to get it from
the demarc to wherever they want their "fiber modem" installed, so you
can penetrate the exterior wall at the same time--when they're in a more
cooperative mood because they're going to get an immediate tangible benefit.

An exterior demarc has clear troubleshooting/maintenance benefits to the
fiber owner.  Let the L2/L3 provider deal with inside wiring problems.

S

-- 
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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