[1st-mile-nm] Resources for the 1st Mile project

[Marianne Granoff]

I am not sure who "they" refers to in the "they say" rumor below.
Having access to a fiber-optic connection is not just about the
fiber being close to your location.

It is also about the (very expensive) electronic equipment required
to "light" the fiber, what path it needs to take from where it is
to where you want it, and whether there is enough "extra" fiber at
the location where it has to be spliced to even allow that.

Generally, if there is a "vault" of some kind with extra rolled-up
fiber, you may at least have a talking point with the owner of the
fiber.  If the fiber conduit just passes by a place, you may not have
one at all.  That conduit could belong to someone who does not even
provide public telecommunications services in NM.

Minimally, find out whose fiber it is.  Comcast's?  Qwest's?  Santa
Fe County's?,  PNM's,  Someone else's?  Then, find out what the
fiber is used for.

In order to provide a conduit path for fiber optic cable anywhere in
NM, you may have to have archeological surveys/permits, DOT permits,
EPA permits, local government permits, etc.

You absolutely do have to have "rights-of-way" to place the conduit
and fiber.  In NM, that path may cross Native American tribal or
pueblo land, federal agency land, state agency land, private land,
or even land with disputed ownership.

You have to have official permission to cross all such land, and may
have to pay for that permission and make some guarantees about what
you will and won't allow the fiber to be used for.  All of this is
time consuming and costly just in the labor required.  Then there is
actually placing the conduit and fiber along that path.  That can
also be expensive, depending on the terrain.

Once all that is done, you still need to have that very expensive
electronic equipment on both ends of that fiber segment.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying to do this, but rather
am trying to put a realistic face on the tasks required.

I am not an engineer, nor an expert by any means, but I have asked this
question many times, and the above description includes many of the
issues that have been explained to me by those who are working in this
area.

Marianne

Marianne Granoff
Member of the Board of Directors
Chair, Public Affairs Committee
New Mexico Internet Professionals Association
P.O. Box 22641
Santa Fe, NM 87502
http://www.nmipa.org
505 345-4771 or 505 980-7919
granoff at zianet.com


At 08:09 PM 9/11/2007 -0600, Owen Densmore wrote:
>Tom: They say that right out front of 632 Agua Fria, the wonderful
>site just beside Redfish, there is a fiber line.  We'd LOVE to figure
>out how to get 632 onto fiber and very high bandwidth.
>
>Does anyone on the list know what we'd need to do to Make It Happen??
>
>     -- Owen

Marianne Granoff
Member of the Board of Directors
Chair, Public Affairs Committee
New Mexico Internet Professionals Association
P.O. Box 22641
Santa Fe, NM 87502
http://www.nmipa.org
505 345-4771 or 505 980-7919
granoff at zianet.com