Re: Muni network ownership and the Fourth

[Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jason Baugher" <jason () thebaughers com>

> There is much talk of how many fibers can fit in a duct, can be brought
> into a colo space, etc... I haven't seen much mention of how much space the
> termination in the colo would take, such as splice trays, bulkheads, etc...
> Someone earlier mentioned being able to have millions of fibers coming
> through a vault, which is true assuming they are just passing through the
> vault. When you need to break into one of those 864-fiber cables, the room
> for splice cases suddenly becomes a problem.

Yes, it does.  POTS MDF's aren't small either.  I need to find out
if anyone makes a self-normalling optical patch panel; I sort of suspect 
the answer is no.

But again, since I'm *the City*, I'm maximizing for *utility*, not 
minimum cost.

> The other thing I find interesting about this entire thread is the
> assumption by most that a government entity would do a good job as a
> layer-1 or -2 provider and would be more efficient than a private company.
> Governments, including municipalities, are notorious for corruption, fraud,
> waste - you name it. Even when government bids out projects to the private
> sector these problems are seen.

The issue here is the physical natural monopoly of the trench work, just 
as there is only one set of water, sewer and (generally) power distribution,
it makes sense for there to be one set of broadband distribution, with
open access to all providers.

As for fraud, the plural of anecdote is not data, no matter how fetching
the anecdote is to listen to.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra () baylink com
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