^4fLast Mile Fiber Through Strategic Partnerships With Utilities and Municipalities

摘要

^7fThere is little work for the optical fiber industry in the long haul, backbone, and metro network markets due to these fibers being mostly unlit. The only market that is wide open is the hard to construct last mile. Those optical fiber companies willing to sell into this last mile market using appropriate installation techniques are the ones that will come out of the telecom gloom first and will have a better chance to prosper in the next decade. Investing in dedicated fiber conduits in open cut ditches to solve the last mile and to provide Fiber to the Building (FTTX) will be too slow because of the many challenges in the last mile. The very governmental, commercial, and residential end users who are craving for FTTX already have sanitary sewers, storm drains, waterlines, and natural gas lines reaching their premises. There are also roads and electrical underground conduits leading to the same end users needing optical fiber. The fat pipe to carry infinite voice/video/data from multiple providers could be housed in these existing pipes, roads, or conduits by forming creative business partnerships among optical fiber owners, service providers, utilities, municipalities, and vendors. When the municipalities and utilities that own these pipes, roads, and electrical conduits take the initiatives for building the last mile fiber, they could meet the needs of FTTX, renovation of their aging pipeline infrastructure, and improved sensing, surveillance, and security of vital lifelines, pumps, compressors, and treatment plants. This paper provides an overview of a) construction technologies that could be used to deploy the optical fiber either inside or outside of existing utility pipes, b) many forms of strategic business plans that could produce faster deployment of last mile optical fiber and FTTX, c) list of cities around the world that have adopted such business plans to produce remarkable results, d) how optical fiber cables in these utility pipes could be used to improve homeland security measures needed for vital infrastructure, and e) better public policies that are needed to support the work of the optical fiber cable industry.