Comments on: A Video Primer on Fiber Backhaul

By: Calix, Broadband Gear Maker, Goes Public – GigaOM

Calix, Broadband Gear Maker, Goes Public – GigaOM — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:01:56 +0000

[...] maker, has gone public. Shares of the company, which makes equipment for fiber-based networks, especially for independent service providers like CenturyTel, started trading on the NYSE under the ticker [...]

By: FCC Gives Special Access a Special Inquiry – GigaOM

FCC Gives Special Access a Special Inquiry – GigaOM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:14:44 +0000

[...] issue of high prices and a lack of availability for middle mile and backhaul access for wired and wireless broadband providers. While the average consumer may not care about so called “special access issues,” [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:01:50 +0000

Brett Glass, the Special Acess lines, are local loop copper (Regular phone lines).
If a CLEC is digging FIber to the towers, then they can charge and provide fiber to whoever they want.
To give you an idea of the difference in cost,you’d spend around 100 bucks a meg for fiber circut in my area, vs. 400 for a 1.5meg T1 run over special access lines.

The ILEC’s and CLECS in an area have field the paperwork with the local cities and counties to be able to dig thru people’s yards. What this rural provider is doing is using their existing rights to dig, to run Fiber to SPRINT, and T-mobile, to The tower sites.

What he’s talking about doing is having passive splices, on existing fiber rings so they get drop some real bandwidth to towers rather than use the crappy existing copper and running slow T1′s.

By: Brett Glass

Brett Glass — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:05:27 +0000

Fiber is nothing but wireless… inside a very expensive tube that doesn’t move.

By: Brett Glass

Brett Glass — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:32:11 +0000

Fiber to the tower is a nice idea. But will it be affordable, given the outrageous prices demanded by the ILECs for “special access” lines? It’s not clear that it will be.

By: cbemerine

cbemerine — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:34:52 +0000

I am betting of Fiber too. How about getting fiber to our homes, apartments, etc, over the last mile before you worry about hooking up cell towers.

As to costs, once the fiber is in, the cost is fixed. Fiber is even lower to maintain, especially in states where lightning strikes are frequent.

Where’s the Fiber? Give me fiber or give me death!