I am about to inherit 26 miles of dark fiber. What do I do with it?

Mon Nov 10 14:35:46 UTC 2014

While short and to the point, what Fletcher said is likely to be the
best advice in this thread.

Getting someone on staff who understands *both* outside plant
architecture and balance sheets...  and can co-develop a business
model that involves the lateral build-out from the six POPs around
town without going broke is the hard part.

"Six POPs, six strands, MPLS backbone vs. selling waves" could be the
concept for the opening lines to a sad country song where the
protagonist doesn't realize that the long pole in the tent is the
making the edge work (someone please run with this and get a musical
lightning talk at San Antonio!)

-r

Faisal Imtiaz <faisal at snappytelecom.net> writes:

> WoW !.. that was a rather cruel and un-called for !
>
> How does that saying go.....Don't say anything, if you cannot say anything nice !
>
>
>
> Faisal Imtiaz
> Snappy Internet & Telecom
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Fletcher Kittredge" <fkittred at gwi.net>
>> To: "Lorell Hathcock" <lorell at hathcock.org>
>> Cc: nanog at nanog.org
>> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 9:56:08 PM
>> Subject: Re: I am about to inherit 26 miles of dark fiber. What do I do with it?
>> 
>> The below is a really sad story. Condolences on the coming trainwreck. I
>> hope you get someone on staff or on consult that understands outside plant
>> architecture, because it is much more important and complex topic than you
>> seem to realize.
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, Nov 9, 2014 at 9:18 PM, Lorell Hathcock <lorell at hathcock.org> wrote:
>> 
>> > All:
>> >
>> > A job opportunity just came my way to work with 26 miles of dark fiber in
>> > and around a city in Texas.
>> >
>> > The intent is for me to deliver internet and private network services to
>> > business customers in this area.
>> >
>> > I relish the thought of starting from scratch to build a network right
>> > from the start instead of inheriting and fixing someone else's mess.
>> >
>> > That being said, what suggestions does the group have for building a new
>> > network using existing dark fiber?
>> >
>> > MPLS backbone?  Like all businesses these days, I will likely have to
>> > build the lit backbone as I add customers. So how would you recommend
>> > scaling the network?
>> >
>> > I have six strands of SMF that connect within municipal facilities. Each
>> > new customer will be a new build out from the nearest point. Because of
>> > having only six strands, I don't anticipate selling dark fiber. I believe I
>> > need to conserve fibers so that it would be lit services that I offer to
>> > customers.
>> >
>> > I would like to offer speeds up to 10 GB.
>> >
>> > Thoughts are appreciated!
>> >
>> > Sincerely,
>> >
>> > Lorell Hathcock
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Fletcher Kittredge
>> GWI
>> 8 Pomerleau Street
>> Biddeford, ME 04005-9457
>> 207-602-1134
>> 