Moving fibre trunks: interruptions?

Sun Sep 3 04:46:56 UTC 2017

The the USA, we have tornadoes, hurricanes, nasty wind and lightning, ice
accumulation on lines, and idiot squirrels that like to eat fiber. Buried
fiber over time will end up being cheaper than aerial once you factor in
maintenance and repair. Add to that the additional cost of pole studies,
replacement and attachments that the electric utility demands to be on
their poles. When you're paying them for a pole study so that they can tell
you that the pole isn't strong enough or tall enough to provide clearance,
then paying them to replace the pole to make it sufficient, and then paying
them monthly after that to be on the pole, just putting it in the ground
starts making a lot of sense.

We were affected by a fiber cut a while back caused by a truck that wiped
out several electric poles. It was over 24 hours before the fiber company
was even allowed access to the poles, because the electric utility wouldn't
release them until they were finished. There's a lot to be said about
controlling your own destiny by putting the fiber in the ground where you
can work on it whenever you need to.

You need insurance regardless of aerial or buried. 1/2 mile might be an
exaggeration. Telcom doesn't do much trenching. Vibratory plow in open
areas where there's nothing to contend with, but in urban, it's almost
always directional boring. The only time we hit anything is when the other
utilities fail to locate at all or fail to locate correctly.

The easiest thing is to contract with a cable construction company that
already has all the skills, insurance and equipment, and let them deal with
it.

On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 5:38 PM, Ricky Beam <jfbeam at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 01 Sep 2017 15:52:40 -0400, Rod Beck <
> rod.beck at unitedcablecompany.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't think there is virtually any aerial in Europe. So given the cost
>> difference why is virtually all fiber buried on this side of the Atlantic?
>>
>
> Aerial is simple and fast... pull the cable through a stringer, move to
> the next pole and repeat; when a section (about a mile) is done, it's
> hoisted into the air and tied to the pole. The stringers are then moved to
> the next mile of poles and the process repeats.
>
> Buried stuff requires a great deal of planning, permitting, and insurance.
> You have to know everything that's ever been stuffed in the ground within
> half a mile of where you're working to avoid the inevitable cutting of
> something important -- gas, water, sewer, power, other telcom, even vacuum
> tube lines and subways. And then you need trenching gear to get stuff in
> the ground, and crews to come along behind to remediate the "environmental
> damage".
>
> (Once the conduit is in the ground, it's a trivial matter to blow whatever
> you need through it.)
>