[1st-mile-nm] 1st-mile-nm Digest, Vol 74, Issue 12

[T.L.Thomas]

Richard,

> From: Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.com>
> Subject: [1st-mile-nm] Portland Blog & Photos
>
> This posting is a bit off-topic,
> but if you appreciate the rare confluence of
> telecommunications infrastructure, architecture,
> history, journalism and art, you'll enjoy
> this holiday season posting from Portland.
>
> http://cabel.me/2012/12/19/the-basement/

Nice aside!

Einstein invented relativity by - among other things - trying to
imagine riding along with a beam of light.  I'd wager that he might
also have envisioned something like optical fibers.   I am guessing
there are of order 10 million miles of internet-related conduit in the
world today(*), much of it now carrying fibers.

I wonder if Einstein ever could have imagined how interesting the
'trips' through such tunnels would eventually become...!

- TLT




(*): With a very crude estimate based on 'first miles' (and final ones)
and a guess about lengths of international links, I figured that there
must be at least 60 million miles of individual internet connections
in the world today.  Then I found a statement that "During the last
20 years, about 85 million miles of fiber optic cable were installed
in the United States" ( http://www.progress.org/optic01.htm ), so I
came in a little low.  I then assume of order 100 links (fibers or wires)
in one conduit.