Telephone copper to fiber transition

Al, can't say why the copper service is deteriorating but my guess is the same as yours... If the company wants to get converts to fiber they need a good reason to force the change over - and what better reason than the old copper pair starts to play up due to reduced maintenance. I know we are cynical but if they didn't force customers to switch over they wouldn't make any money out of their new fangled FTTH now would they?

Quite frankly, I can't see that any normal single residential building would require the bandwidth offered by FTTH. No home could use more than a bees dick worth of the capability of fiber, so in my book it isn't really worth having. Looking at the customer premises power requirements for FTTH

it seems like a backward step to me - just like in the old days when we had magneto telephones with those two No.6 dry cells to power the carbon transmitter. Even then the telco had to replace the batteries for you when they went flat since it was considered part of their equipment. It should be the same with FTTH.

IMO, for 99.99% of residential datacomms needs, the fiber solution which would give all the bandwidth required is either FTTN (fiber to the node) or FTTK (fiber to the kerb). This way the telco is responsible for all the backup power for the fiber interface equipment and the short length of copper between the fiber node and the residence would give all the bandwidth you need. I believe that is what our local telco is planning for us.

The usual FTTH has two incoming fiber wavelengths, one carying fast Ethernet and one with a 2.5 GHz analog signal. And there's a laser in the box to provide a fast upstream digital link. They're not doing that to sell you 3 KHz voice service.

John

Where are you located?

Around here (Arizona), the land-line company (Qwest) is losing subscribers. Seems, with the new portability of phone numbers rule, and 9-1-1 service for cell phones, people are simply having cell phones ONLY ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

internet next. However, they can't ask you to share the cost for these future services. Basic phone service would be fine to charge you, regardless of how much of it is overkill.

Look into mobile phones and give up your land line.

That's all I'm buying. Plus the computer connection. No TV for me though.

I live about 2 miles from 3 1000ft TV/radio masts. The reception is terrific. I get all the TV I want from that.

Al

I would give up my land line, but my wife insists on it. And in a way she is right. When the power goes off, the land line stays on. The cells die quickly.

Al

I agree with Ross. Phone companies are more corrupt than the average user knows.

I ran a company in back in the mid 1990's in the Southern USA doing network installation, and I will swear in any court that big telco companies like Southwestern Bell and Time Warner (routinely) play tricks on customers to lock them into long term high-rate contracts. One of our clients was a former state Attorney General who called to complain because he felt he might be getting the shaft. He wanted to put in fiber in his new 2000-home complex being built, hoping to provide low-cost Internet access. The major phone company would not help him, nor would they allow any other company to help him, including other smaller phone companies. Each person who was being man-handle by the major phone companies would try to give "hints" that it was not their fault. The whole situation stunk. Everyone knew what was going on except the client. In the end, guess who got easement rights and conduit ownership for all those homes?

Time Warner has cleaned up its act somewhat, but at one point they were not much better. Everynow and then a large customer would get a gut feeling that the traditional bury-some-coax-cable-company-owns-the-copper model was not quite right. They all fell into the same trap. After a few months, Time Warner would have them so twisted and confused in their understanding of technology that they would give up.

I would have to remind customers on almost a wekly basis in their negotations with these two companys to MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SURRENDER ownership of the conduit. Few listened. I would come on site a few months later to find blank looks on their faces. One customer, after realizing they'd made a $50,000 mistake, after I had explicitly told them not to sit down at the negotiating table with Time Warner without me being present, asked if there was anything they could do. One of their brilliant staff came up with the idea of Wi-Fi, to serve and enormous $300,000,000.00US apartment community. It was a disaster. The rooftops of the building were made of metal. They looked at me and asked, "Well...what do we do now?" It was the one time I snapped at a customer. I said, "You need to build a time machine to go back 8 months ago, and when you hear me telling you not to relinquish ownership of the conduit to Time Warner, you listen!!!!"

With regard to the OP's post:

The FCC USA rules stipulate that anything beyond the point of demarcation on the house side is the responsibility of the homeowner. Anything beyond the point of demarcation on the curb side is the responsibility of the phone company. Under no circumstances is the phone company allowed to create a network where these points of demarcation do not exist and are clearly marked and are accessible by

*both* they *and* the customer. The spirit of these laws is to avoid precisely the situation you are in. This means that, those little green or gray (etc.) plastic boxes mounted on the side of your house might have been put there by phone company, but they are legally accessible by you, and more importanly, another company that might be ready to give you a better deal. For example, if someone were to design a wireless box that could be mounted right next to the point of demarcation, bypassing the telephone system, that is entirely legal, and it is your right.i

The flip side of this is that you are *not* required to power anything. That's just ridiculous. With fiber, these companies are always looking for power freebies. The local electric grid is probably only a few meters away, but the electrical company problably gave them an unsavory deal, so they are trying to pull a fast one on you. Tell them "no", and if they do not give you the phone service you need (which is also required by law), write a letter threatening to sue, and contact the FCC.

Finally, about the static in the line...that makes me laugh. I cannot emphasize enough how much you are getting shafted. Your quality should have improved if anything. The other end of the copper right now is an optical switch with line digitizers. These things do not make mistakes, or have "errors". Their connection to the rest of the network is via fiber. There are some simple tricks that can be done that can give line a lot of noise, and most likely, the field techncian went into the field house/pedals and did one of these things for all the copper connections. The law prevents anyone else from opening these pedastals, so they are covered. You're getting screwed. If you don't believe me, write a letter complaining, and CC a copy to the FCC, and watch how fast that static goes away.

-Le Chaud Lapin-