From: stephen@sprunk.org
On 02-Jul-14 11:57, Robert Heller wrote:
> "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:
>> If the copper pair is in good condition, it's still useful for data
>> and voice needs. Cable distributors providing broadband manage to
>> do it on coax, which is ancient wiring technology too.
>
> Actually, by *world* standards, what the USA Cable distributors (eg
> Comcast and Time Warner) provide is sub-standard. DSL technology is
> EOL (End of Life) -- the equipment is no longer being made or
> supported.
It's definitely still being made. Perhaps some countries' telcos aren't
buying it anymore, but that's a totally different matter.
> Copper *IS* becoming a "dead" telecom technology and is pretty much
> dead in most of the *developed* world and is dieing in the
> developing world. It seems to be 'hanging on' in the USA,
> however.
The US has a very large installed base of copper, unlike developing
countries, and a lower population density than other developed
countries, which makes switching to fiber more costly.
FTTN is a good compromise for our particular case.
>> btw, there are two different fiber models. I dunno why you were
>> saying you have "FiOS" (the i is lower case), which is Verizon's
>> marketing term. We all know that Verizon was rolling out FiOS
>> slowly and pretty much stopped at some point, due to its incredible
>> expense. Your notion that fiber is cost effective to install is
>> goofy.
>
> It is no more expensive than stringing copper on the utility poles.
> Actually *fiber* cables are getting to be cheaper than copper --
For new lines, sure. However, in most cases the copper lines are a sunk
cost, and replacing them with fiber would cost a lot of money.
> copper is slowly becoming a 'precious' metal -- people are doing
> things like stealing copper pipes from old buildings to sell for
> scrap.
It's not just copper pipe; some desperate people steal phone and cable
wires right off the poles or dig up buried lines. Heck, every few weeks
there's a story in the news about some moron being electrocuted while
trying to steal live power lines.
That is actually one the best reasons for switching to fiber: dig up all
that valuable copper before the thieves do.
> Yes, Verizon has pretty much stopped rolling out FiOS.
They're still marketing the heck out of it here. Perhaps you mean
they're not introducing it in additional exchanges?
> Right now, Verizon has sold off almost all of their copper
> telephone infrastructure -- only in Mass. does Verizon have any
> copper telephone infrastructure,
What? Verizon is still the ILEC for a big chunk of the country.
> Verizon *has* been 'called on the carpet' about these issues, but I
> Verizon would rather pay fines than actually fix things. The fines
> are probably cheaper than the cost of fixing the phone lines -- in
> some cases the cables need to be completly replaced, which Verizon
> is not going to do.
That's a big problem with our regulatory system: it's often cheaper to
pay the fines than to correct the problem.
HIPPA was the same way, at least at first. Nearly every hospital I
talked to said it was cheaper to pay the fines than to replace their
existing stuff with HIPPA-compliant versions--and that's assuming the
govt found out about the problems; fines are rare in practice.
S
--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking
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