Buried Fiber Optic cable near my house...

[bignateyk]

What could it be? We don't have Fios or Uverse in the area. It's a fairly small town, so I would be surprised if it was something the township put there.

There are white posts with an orange cap on them that say buried fiber optic cable, and they run every few hundred yards down my street.

I'm just praying that it's gonna be some kind of fiber internet service since we don't even get cable or DSL where we're at.

 

[highland145]

Sorry, nate. It's going to the super secret lab that's going to start the zombie infections. So you will not get internet access to the fiber but you will have your brains eaten by your neighbor.

 

[FallenHero]

Who are the main providers in your area? They might be prepping for deployment of some sort of fiber service. Only reason I can think of for them to actually put fiber in the ground...no other real use for it.

 

[FallenHero]

Sorry, nate. It's going to the super secret lab that's going to start the zombie infections. So you will not get internet access to the fiber but you will have your brains eaten by your neighbor.

Buy guns, lots of them. And even more bullets. About 10000 per gun.

 

[waffleironhead]

dark fiber, google probably owns it now

 

[highland145]

Buy guns, lots of them. And even more bullets. About 10000 per gun.

Hornady Zombie Max, FTW.:awe:

 

[bignateyk]

Who are the main providers in your area? They might be prepping for deployment of some sort of fiber service. Only reason I can think of for them to actually put fiber in the ground...no other real use for it.

ATT, Verizon, and Comcast are the big players. Like I said though, we are on the fringe of town and don't even have cable or DSL. (The next street over from us does though). We are in central PA (State College)

 

[Specop 007]

Long haul fiber most likely. We're getting a bunch put in ourselves to interconnect our markets together. Its actually owned by another organization and we lease the dark fiber as well as provide maintenance services on it.

I wouldnt get your hopes up. In fact OP I wouldnt even really pay attention to it if I were you.

 

[mvbighead]

Who are the main providers in your area? They might be prepping for deployment of some sort of fiber service. Only reason I can think of for them to actually put fiber in the ground...no other real use for it.

The reality is, is less populated areas, fiber seems to be often used to distribute Internet service large distances. Not necessarily fiber to your door, but it might be.

I have discussed with a tech for my DSL provider (best available Internet for me) why I am only able to get 2.2mbps down. He had mentioned that they were looking into dropping a repeater box further out in my direction that would up my Internet speeds to the max of 10Mbps via DSL. So essentially, they use fiber to put a "hub" further out and increase the bandwidth available to rural customers.

My FIL supposedly has fiber to his door, or perhaps even the same type of deal my ISP is doing. Not sure though as he is a rancher and not a computer guy, but his SIL works for the major ISP in western Nebraska. Due to the distance between homes, especially where the FIL is at (about 30 miles outside of a 500 population town), they have to use fiber to get anything anywhere. So while they might have "fiber" service, it's not better than cable Internet in a sizable city. The FIL, last I checked, pulled down 1.5. When I lived in Omaha, I was getting 35 down via cable.

So, the long gist of this post is that fiber, in some areas, is more about distance than optimum connection speed.

 

[Specop 007]

The reality is, is less populated areas, fiber seems to be often used to distribute Internet service large distances. Not necessarily fiber to your door, but it might be.

I have discussed with a tech for my DSL provider (best available Internet for me) why I am only able to get 2.2mbps down. He had mentioned that they were looking into dropping a repeater box further out in my direction that would up my Internet speeds to the max of 10Mbps via DSL. So essentially, they use fiber to put a "hub" further out and increase the bandwidth available to rural customers.

My FIL supposedly has fiber to his door, or perhaps even the same type of deal my ISP is doing. Not sure though as he is a rancher and not a computer guy, but his SIL works for the major ISP in western Nebraska. Due to the distance between homes, especially where the FIL is at (about 30 miles outside of a 500 population town), they have to use fiber to get anything anywhere. So while they might have "fiber" service, it's not better than cable Internet in a sizable city. The FIL, last I checked, pulled down 1.5. When I lived in Omaha, I was getting 35 down via cable.

So, the long gist of this post is that fiber, in some areas, is more about distance than optimum connection speed.

Charter I bet? Rather curious what she does and where shes located.... Does she live in western Nebraska? In a technical position? Sales? CSR type work?

 

[highland145]

ATT, Verizon, and Comcast are the big players. Like I said though, we are on the fringe of town and don't even have cable or DSL. (The next street over from us does though). We are in central PA (State College)

Wasn't there a part of the stimulus plan to get dsl to rural areas? Maybe it's Obummer $$. Hope so, for you.

 

[Krazy4Real]

You're only five years away from high speed internet. Congrats!

 

[todpod]

ATT, Verizon, and Comcast are the big players. Like I said though, we are on the fringe of town and don't even have cable or DSL. (The next street over from us does though). We are in central PA (State College)

The came and laid fiber through our town Clarion, along 322, which also runs through State college, not sure who laid it but I don't think it was a big name.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Wasn't there a part of the stimulus plan to get dsl to rural areas? Maybe it's Obummer $$. Hope so, for you.

We have not had wired internet for so long that fixed wireless companies have sprung up everywhere to provide internet to us.

If DSL came, we wouldn't care.

 

[Gibson486]

Maybe your municipality is running fiber for communications between stations? Yeah, seems kind of expensive, but you would be surprised by how much money these municipalities blow when they hire these "hot shot engineering firms" to get innovative.

 

[Specop 007]

We have not had wired internet for so long that fixed wireless companies have sprung up everywhere to provide internet to us.

If DSL came, we wouldn't care.

I second this. I have 3 meg internet and I live 6 miles south of a town of 265 people. They have plans up to 5 meg and I've talked to the owner about whats really possible and he said skies the limit if they upgrade hardware. I was looking for a 20 meg plan which is why I asked.

Wireless internet is the best solution for rural areas IMO.

 

[5to1baby1in5]

Cut it and see who shows up.

Guys in white vans and hard hats: Internet
Police: City network for traffic lights and spy caneras
Army guys: Missle defense system comm's
Black hats: Zombie labs

 

[bignateyk]

I second this. I have 3 meg internet and I live 6 miles south of a town of 265 people. They have plans up to 5 meg and I've talked to the owner about whats really possible and he said skies the limit if they upgrade hardware. I was looking for a 20 meg plan which is why I asked.

Wireless internet is the best solution for rural areas IMO.

We can't even get traditional wireless internet. It really sucks. Our only options are:
1) Dialup
2) Satellite
3) 4G LTE Broadband

We went with number 3. The speeds are great, but the cost and data caps are ridiculous. It's $80/month for 10GB, and $10/GB over that. Streaming video is pretty much out of the question.

Satellite is even worse. More expensive, slower speeds, worse data caps.

 

[SunnyD]

Comcrap is putting fiber in my neighborhood right now. I'm quite happy about it given my only other option is AT&T dsl, not the uverse variety either.