Bill to Require Fiber Optic Cable Friendly Highway Construction

Not the best title. The requirement is to build conduits (empty tubes) at the same time as the road. The fiber would come later.<p>Better write-up from when it was first introduced: <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/158975-eshoo-introduces-bill-to-promote-broadband-deployment" rel="nofollow">http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/158975-e...</a><p>edit: title on HN was changed, woot :)

Isn't there still a bunch of unlit fiber in the ground from the first tech bubble? Isn't the main problem getting fiber to the household (i.e. the last mile)?<p>If I understand this correctly, this legislation sounds like it might have been useful a decade ago.

I'm more interested in last-mile solutions. Where I live has abysmal internet service. In fact, DSL was unavailable in our neighborhood until after cable made its appearance. I'm willing to pay for a decent, business-class solution for internet service, as our consumer package craps out every month or so. However, the top business-class package for our cable provider is only 10/2, and that would run north of $300/month without any other services like phone or TV.<p>I would love a solution like Verizon FIOS but they don't serve my area. Fiber to the home is what I really want.

Somewhat related, the Southern Pacific Communications Company story is pretty interesting. Somebody had the vision to lay down fiber optic under all that rock and railroads ties. This network is now known as the vast Sprint Internet backbone.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Nextel#GTE_Sprint" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Nextel#GTE_Sprint</a><p><a href="http://www.rightofwaymagazine-digital.org/row/20110708?pg=31#pg31" rel="nofollow">http://www.rightofwaymagazine-digital.org/row/20110708?pg=31...</a>

One question. Who would then have access to this conduit? Any company? All Companies?<p>Someone has to own, operate, install, maintain and fix that fiber.<p>So, does the company that just laid their own fiber last year get penalized as someone can come in for a much reduced cost and run fiber to compete?<p>This would have been a good idea 15 years ago. Now it's kind of moot. We already have fiber that's anywhere near a federal highway. Most likely we will have to go _under_ that highway and cross it in metro areas.<p>Federal grants have paid to put a lot of fiber into the ground in rural areas: <a href="http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/" rel="nofollow">http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/</a><p>Disclaimer: I work for a Telco that owns a lot of fiber.

This sounds the same as the Broadband Conduit Deployment bill that was discussed in 2008 right after the Stimulus had passed. I haven't seen a word written against it, yet apparently it never became law. What gives? Who opposes it?

illinois has something like this along its toll roads:<p><a href="http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_dad=portal&#38;_schema=PORTAL&#38;_pageid=133,1395227" rel="nofollow">http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_dad=portal&#38;_...</a>

I can't believe we are still trying to figure out how to do this.<p>Maybe we should 1st stop the protected monopoly status of Comcast, ATT and the other telecom cartels.

I doubt that the conduit that would be installed would result in more ubiquitous wired broadband coverage or for higher speeds to existing wired broadband users.<p>More likely, it would allow mobile carrier to install suitable size data backhaul connections to their towers in rural areas instead setting up a bunch of microwave links.

fiber+wireless...