Am I totally insane for considering pulling fiber for home broadband?

[Specop 007]

Dragonwave would be overkill in this instance.

Ubiquiti would be more than sufficient.

No more overkill than pulling fiber for 10 miles.

 

[Mark R]

Guess it's probably not worth it.

A semi-decent radio link would probably be better. I'll ask him to enquire whether the towers he is considering are upgradeable to better radios. As fewer high-power radios would likely be a better option than more cheap radios.

I suppose if he didn't already have mains electicity - it might be worth just dropping some fiber in the trench if he was getting mains power installed.

Still, it's a pretty remote area, and his mains electricity was a relatively recent installation (about 20 years ago) and he had to pay the costs of the cable and installation. There is a cluster of small houses nearby don't have a mains electricity supply - they just have a diesel generator, and use LPG for space/water heating. The only service they have are some pretty poor quality POTS.

 

[Zargon]

You've never priced fiber, optics and install have you? I think its something like 10-15 grand per mile.

Go wireless and use commercial grade gear. You can do a 10 mile span with one good radio. Well, 2, one on each end.

Never mind the fact the fiber market is horribly undersupplied right now due to the problems in Japan. You might not even be able to find 10 miles of fiber.

last year I spent 50,000 on one mile of fiber, but it was all bored, and there were a fair amount of handholds.

with the equipment and fusing it was more like 56-60K

it also took 6 months due to waiting on backordered fiber

trenching is obviously cheaper if you can do it

 

[Modelworks]

You only need 1 tower to do the job and a 50ft mast should suffice at the end point. I don't know the height requirements but even a 100ft tower with proper equipment will be less than the cost of the fiber alone.
http://www.rohnnet.com/rohn-65g-tower
http://www.rohnnet.com/rohn-telescoping-masts

Also check ebay for rohm towers , sometimes you can find some good deals.
Another place is go to the ARRL site and see if you can find some local ham operators , they have tons of knowledge on towers and on how the area is for wireless.
http://www.arrl.org/

A 10 mile or 20 mile link is not hard to do if you don't have Line of sight issues.

 

[xSauronx]

10 miles is easy for good quality wireless point-to-point gear. Find someone in town with a 100ft tower and pay them a bit to drop a Ubiquiti PowerBridge M5 on it, get some kind of broadband on it, and then put a 100ft tower up at the house and put another PowerBridge M5 on it.

Probably looking at a couple hundred bucks a month to use someone's tower and then ~$2500 one-time for the radios and the tower. Much, MUCH cheaper than running 10 miles of fiber and buying the required optics.

came here to say something similar. long-range wireless is available and not bad, if the LOS between the points is doable.

 

[alkemyst]

Do you need permits to dig those trenches for the fiber?

You need permits and all the right of way zoning permissions. Probably even an environmental writeup done.

They more than likely would not grant this to a private individual.

If latency is not an issue then satellite would be his answer.

 

[Eug]

You need permits and all the right of way zoning permissions. Probably even an environmental writeup done.

They more than likely would not grant this to a private individual.

Like I said, my sis's neighbour did this. He is a private individual, but it was a much shorter distance.

Everything was done above board, with permits.

 

[Mark R]

There are no issues with permits - none required. They would only be required if crossing public land (e.g. public roads) or a 3rd party's land.

Even if road crossings were required, this is a formality - just pay an admin fee, and the regional planner tells you if you can lay the cable where you want, or not (and makes an official record of the cable route in case of future need to maintain the road, or for future installation of services).

The 2nd is more of a problem - but not relevant here.

The only relevant thing is other buried utilities - but he would be able to get the official drawings showing where the power/water/sewage lines run on his land. The only problem would be if the drawings weren't accurate (which occasionally they aren't in these remote areas).

Apparently, the main problem with the tower idea is that permitting for those is likely to be difficult as they are visible, and this is an officially recognised conservation area and close to an area of outstanding natural beauty. He reckons he may be able to get away with it, if the towers are short (<30 ft), but would be unlikely to get permits for 50ft towers.

I guess if the tower idea won't fly, the idea may well have to be abandoned.

 

[Zargon]

There are no issues with permits - none required. They would only be required if crossing public land (e.g. public roads) or a 3rd party's land.

Even if road crossings were required, this is a formality - just pay an admin fee, and the regional planner tells you if you can lay the cable where you want, or not (and makes an official record of the cable route in case of future need to maintain the road, or for future installation of services).

The 2nd is more of a problem - but not relevant here.

The only relevant thing is other buried utilities - but he would be able to get the official drawings showing where the power/water/sewage lines run on his land. The only problem would be if the drawings weren't accurate (which occasionally they aren't in these remote areas).

Apparently, the main problem with the tower idea is that permitting for those is likely to be difficult as they are visible, and this is an officially recognised conservation area and close to an area of outstanding natural beauty. He reckons he may be able to get away with it, if the towers are short (<30 ft), but would be unlikely to get permits for 50ft towers.

I guess if the tower idea won't fly, the idea may well have to be abandoned.

you mean more often than not?

although the more common issue lately is telco/cable cheaping out on buring cable and going about 4 inches down instead of 18(which is code in my area)

 

[Specop 007]

I wouldnt necessarily abandon the idea, you just need to be realistic about costs and maintenance services. This isnt a $2,000 project. If someone has the means to pony up $20,000 or more so they can get internet at home then go for it.

Realizing of course the price may come in a fair amount under that amount or a frightfully large amount over that.

Its one of the age old problems of living in the country. Keep in mind you only need 2 towers if you have a good shot. One at A point and one at Z point. 10 miles isnt a problem at all for good wireless equipment. Thats assuming good line of sight though.

 

[dawks]

You've never priced fiber, optics and install have you? I think its something like 10-15 grand per mile.

Go wireless and use commercial grade gear. You can do a 10 mile span with one good radio. Well, 2, one on each end.

Never mind the fact the fiber market is horribly undersupplied right now due to the problems in Japan. You might not even be able to find 10 miles of fiber.

Yea we run a 7 mile link via 2 wireless access points across the city. Providing you can get line-of-sight, you could put up to 'short' towers and connect them that way. I just received a rough quote for an upgrade to our antennas of about $4-5G, and that should get us close to 50mbps.

 

[Eug]

you mean more often than not?

although the more common issue lately is telco/cable cheaping out on buring cable and going about 4 inches down instead of 18(which is code in my area)

What really?!?!? 4 inches? That seems completely useless.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I am with the other guys, go with 2 wireless AP's, assuming he has line of sight.

 

[Duwelon]

I'm with the wifi crowd. You can do this with at little as 2 towers if you have good line of sight, or add more as necessary.

http://www.ubnt.com/bulletm

Add a good directional antenna and you can get a very cheap, industrial grade link. Ubiquiti claims up to 50km, so 10 miles should be nothing. Once you have this link, if there are other "stranded" neighbors you can probably help them out too.

 

[alkemyst]

The biggest trick with long distance wifi is maintaining that line of sight. Trees and man-made items can grow / spring up well out of a humans line of sight.

Also keep in mind if you are given access to another's rooftop, some dishes are considered 'high energy' and can invisibily fry you....they are not always marked.