anyone remember the term dark fiber?(unused intenet capacity)

[amerikat]

It refers to a time when the internet was catching on and companies
laid lots of fiber optic lines(mid 90's) but it went unused. Is it still unused
or is it maxed out. I realize that the growth now is in wireless but what
I want to know is, is the fiber network being fully utilized?

[DeadEyeDyck]

1. no

[X_Digger]

2. It wasn't about the mid 90's, it was more about after the dot com bust..

Lines were being laid in expectation of continued growth, which never happened.

To answer your question- yes there is still a lot of dark fiber, but not as much as in, say, 2002 or 2003. The Verizon/MCI buy out and subsequent FiOS rollout lit up a lot of fiber, as did AT&Ts U-Verse initiative.

[amerikat]

9. You are correct about the timeline

thanks for refreshing my memory.

[Volaris]

15. I was for some reason under the impression

that Google had bought up a whole damn lot of it, for reasons I can't clearly remember....something about starting a nationwide ISP out of their shop, maybe?

[givemebackmycountry]

3. Forget that term and learn a new one...

"Unused spectrum"
It makes fiber look like fish line.

[Renew Deal]

5. Isn't that about radio signals?

[Renew Deal]

4. I know the term.

It's also used to describe a backup fiber network that's not being used.

Here's a potential answer to your question... http://www.macworld.com/article/61123/2007/11/internetcapacity.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1899&bih=1101&q=us+internet+capacity&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=

Wireless is just an endpoint, meaning that it's where clients (computers, ipads, other devices, etc.) connect. You can throw up almost as many of those as you need. Backbone is limited. That's the question you're asking.

[amerikat]

8. so wireless still goes to cell tower that then goes to a

land line?

[TheMadMonk]

11. Short answer yes. Read on if you want to know why.

It's all a matter of bandwidth, which is a measure of how much information can be put through a channel in a given time.

Radio waves and the light in fibre optics are both electromagnetic waves, the only thing which differentiates them is their wavelength. Radio waves have relatively long wave lengths, light has a much shorter wavelength. Simplistically, short wavelengths can be "chopped up" finer and thus carry more information than longer wavelengths.

Radiowaves are broadcast into the nonexistant "aether". Two (or any number of) fibres carrying exactly the same wavelength can be laid fractions of a milimetre apart.

Add up all the bits and pieces, and it's not hard to see how thousands of times as much data can be shoved down a thumb thick conduit than could ever be transmitted through the air. Thus it only makes sense to utilise "broadcast spectrum" to the first tower, and land lines to the destination.

[TexasProgresive]

13. Most calls after hitting the cell site are delivered by copper, fiber or MW

to a switch somewhere that routes the call to wherever. In our area MW (microwave) back haul is rare since MW is prone to fade according to weather conditions. Increasing cell phone proliferation is taking a toll on copper fed land lines to homes but the central offices which formerly switched those landlines are fast becoming home to fiber optic nodes carrying cell voice and data calls.

[AC_Mem]

6. I work for a major telecom company

Dark fiber is still used, absolutely.

[DainBramaged]

10. We (who I work for) used to have 6 full DS1's costing thousands every month

now we have Cablevision Ultra averaging over 40MB+/sec download, 10MB/sec upload for $189 a month. And the CSU/DSUs (?) lay 'dark' on the wall except for the two Verizon uses for our landlines.

[TexasProgresive]

12. DS1 or T1s are copper fed not fiber

DS1s run at 1.544Mbps the smallest fiber rate is OC3 which is 84 times larger able to carry 84 T1s over 3 DS3s or as one pipe 155.5 Mbps. This is dedicated bandwidth that belongs to the end user. The 9.25 Mbps your company had from the 6 T1s was full time the 40Mbps you have presently is the nominal maximum available but during peak hours it will be less. It is not the same capacity as one DS3. But if the cable provided ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) or what ever they call it, works then it is a better deal.

[DainBramaged]

14. Uh, I know. I tried to use it as an example of older less cost effective technology

The 40Mbps we currently enjoy is nominal average, since we use it when most people are at work, or non-peak, but giving the common folk an explanation of the technology differences was educational.





:eyes:

[tridim]

7. I worked for an ISP in the early 90's..

and laugh every time I think about the bank of modems we had. I think we had about 2000 at the peak, and they were all completely useless a few years later. Every one was just a standard modem with a phone line and wall-wart.

Ahh the bad-old days.