I signed up to be notified when the fiber Internet service currently (I might say finally) being built out in my area is available, and the subject line of the acknowledgement email says "you're on the list." I feel vaguely threatened now.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>I signed up to be notified when the fiber Internet service currently
>(I might say finally) being built out in my area is available,
>and the subject line of the acknowledgement email says "you're on the
>list." I feel vaguely threatened now.

I got that email too!

Two years later I moved across town to a place with fiber and finally got it. It's still not available at my old address (a year since the move), but the current residents inform me that they're "on the list".

I hate companies that do that crap.

--sofaspud
--finally having fiber IS really nice tho

>I hate companies that do that crap.

Well, there are a bunch of spool trucks and stuff with the company's logo around, big loops of new cable hanging from telephone poles all over town, and lots of traffic disruptions while men in bucket vans Do Things, so I'm reasonably sure they genuinely are building something...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Odd, we recently got fiber in my area and they didn't go on the poles, but kinda stitched it into the ground, with holes every so many feet to pull it through I think.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

>Odd, we recently got fiber in my area and they didn't go on the poles,
>but kinda stitched it into the ground, with holes every so many feet
>to pull it through I think.

Given how often we have ice/heavy snow/wind storms around here, our electric, phone, and Internet wires SHOULD all be buried... but they are not. I guess they'd need to go quite deep to get below the frost line, and the hassle and expense make the utilities more willing to just constantly put poles and lines back up after heavy weather, but man...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm not sure if our frost line isn't as deep here, or they assume that climate change has fixed that for them (we used to get pretty harsh winters, but now it's generally just a 1-2 week period where we get smacked in the face and then back to late fall/early spring weather the rest of the way).

As far as the poles, my cynical nature makes me want to bet they're using the "do it cheap so we can increase shareholder profits right now, and when it breaks, it's some other department's loss" method.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

The area I used to live (known locally as the South Hill neighborhood) is basically a couple inches of dirt over a huge granite outcropping, so everything there is on poles due to cost.

Even though we routinely get ice and wind storms that bring down said poles, apparently it's still cheaper to restring them up high than to bury them. I don't pretend to understand, but that's the reason I was given when I asked the question.

--sofaspud
--