Richard Frank 518-491-7768 email: rffrank2468@aol.com

OSP Design & Construction Our Mission is Broadband for all

Are NYS’s privately owned LEC’s “To Big to Fail”?

If we don’t act now the owners of our rural independent phone companies will be standing right next to this guy!

As wireless access speeds and reliability improve our regional ILEC’s continue to lose wire line customers and overall market share.

After years of declining revenues companies are banding together. 11 independents in NYS were part of a broadband project that built middle mile fiber which reduced their transport costs. That was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately they do not have the capitol nor can they make a business case to build last mile fiber. We would like to see these same organizations come to a collective bargaining table to discuss a partnership that would facilitate building rural infrastructure to unserved and underserved areas in NYS.

Will our local companies give a little back to the communities they serve? Will

they do the right thing and work with others to ensure all New Yorkers are

provided high speed internet access? Only time will Tell. Let’s hope!

LEC’s (Local Exchange Carriers) own the poles. They charge competitors fees to attach cable to their poles. Aside from those fees they also bill us for “Make Ready” These costs are phenomenal. If not in the 100s of thousands could be millions on larger projects. “Make Ready” is the term used by pole owners to get a pole ready for a new cable attachment. There are

specific guidelines for spacing of cables, clearances between electric wires and tel cables, etc. The sad part of all this is in many cases these companies don’t adhere to these guidelines yet enforce them on competition. They have also collected wire maintenances charges for years and failed to allocate the funds to do this work. The LEC’s use a pole application as way to pass their own maintenance costs on to competition. It’s not fair to competition for us to be burdened with clearing up the mess they have left and pay the “Make Ready” costs. You can view the 2010 83 minute video of the FCC new pole attachment ruling at http://www.kelleydrye.com/events/seminars/000153 .

Striking business & community partnership arrangements with our ILECs will leverage their facilities to shorten deployment timelines

and reduce overall construction costs.

These savings would make the business case for building fiber to rural areas feasible!

Some communications providers have excess fiber strands. Fiber count in cables ranges from 6 to 24 near residences and individual businesses to more than 1,000 on backbone routes. The cost of a 6-count fiber cable is $2,000 per mile, while an 864-count cable is $50,000 per mile, implying a marginal cost of approximately $50 per fiber per mile. Actual costs for fiber purchase or lease, of course, reflect market costs and depend on the total availability of fiber over the route–and are thus, typically, considerably higher; however, fiber lease or purchase may be a serious consideration over routes where construction is difficult or costly and considerable fiber has already been installed (e.g., river crossings, tunnels).

Aerial Versus Underground Typical construction is a mixture of aerial and underground techniques. Aerial construction can be completed for $20,000 per mile. Aerial construction may be more expensive when poles are crowded or when the utility pole owner charges high rates for access. Worst-case costs can be $100,000 per mile (which usually would lead a network owner to build underground or over another route). Underground construction also has a wide cost range. In areas where restoration is not important and long continuous runs are possible (e.g., rural areas, in dirt, on the side of interstate roads), “plowing” the fiber into the ground is an inexpensive option— approximately $40,000 per mile. In more built-up areas, directional boring is necessary, because it is less destructive to the right-of-way and requires less restoration. Boring is more expensive, approximately $60,000 to $100,000 per mile. Boring also limits the amount of cable and conduit that can be built. (Two 2-inch conduit is a typical limit, corresponding to four medium-sized fiber optic cables.)

Minutes from Albany many have very limited access to the internet. Red line is our planned core fiber ring we would build last mile from.

We have a lot of work to do! Wireline vs. Wireless coverage in and around the NYS Capitol

Our rural businesses have been left in the dark. They need fiber too!

Many New Yorkers do not have high speed internet access

For additional info look us up on slideshare