BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.
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LESSONS FROM THE FIELD you can pay them for it and not dig up the downtown. It can be utilized, but it's a financial decision. In small cities, it tends not to be used." THIS OLD HOUSE "Right now we're in front of all these houses. Most of the other utilities are in the easements behind the homes, so the only thing we have to deal with is water, gas and sanitary sewer. We'll be above the sanitary sewer, and the gas lines run 24 inches deep. Te water lines should be deep enough, but not all of them are, so you do have to dig them up if you can find them. In these older ar- eas, these things got put in with shovels, not backhoes. We should be clear in 80 percent of the house drops. We did ad- vance planning to adjust the handholes to make sure we had a clear path. "It's mostly single-family housing with a single level on slab or basement and two bedrooms. Tey're mostly wood frames [so the cable can be brought through the front wall] or we can come up through the basement. "We're putting fiber all the way to the computer, TV and game stations, then to the ONT and wireless router. We run the Ethernet a little way if they've got a TV and a computer but no wireless. Usually, we're hitting just about where they need it. It's an underserved area, and the houses aren't large; they don't have six TVs and three computers." EASEMENTS A manhole is placed in the ground at the University of Illinois, which will house the UC2B central office. The university already had a high- performance network, which the rest of the community will now be able to leverage. "Some of the easements are harder to get than we thought. Tat is a major prob- lem. It's always nice to have done them ahead of time, but on short jobs, you can't always accomplish that. Te cities are partners on the project, so when we're using their rights-of-way, that went a lot smoother – that helped us out. We had most of the railroad permits, but we had to go back for some others when we did changes. It's the landowner ones that are most difficult. Illinois is unusual in that landowners own the middle of the road. You can get out there and realize that the landowner gave surface rights only or buck up against someone who asks for a right-of-way easement. Most of that's taken care of now. 76 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | OCTOBER 2012