[BC] Fiber, watch out

[Chris Gebhardt]

RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote:
> Are you sure it is Comcast? There was cable laid all up and down Routes I-495, I-395, and Routes I-95 in the Northeast. I checked the ownership because I wanted to know how they got permission to put the fiber onto a publicly-owned highway without a long, cumbersome, bidding process.
> 
> It turns out it was done by Northern Natural Gas, the largest interstate gas-pipeline in the US. They expect to lease it when it is complete. It turns out that in 1850, the Congress gave the "gas companies" the right to put gas pipes anywhere. This was in the days where a "coal-gas" company existed in every large city and the resulting "illuminating gas" was to be piped to the customers, sometimes even using wooden pipes.
> 
> Through the distortion of lawyering, this "right" by someone who calls themselves a gas company has been expanded to where people have found their gardens, lawns, and sometimes homes, destroyed by the gas companies installing 750 lb/sq/in pipe valve-heads and control buildings on their property without any formal process at all. They just do it. 
> 
> The gas company just showed up one day and started installing fiber in the interstate highway system. They did it because nobody could stop them. Apparently they will defend their right to install fiber as some modern equivalent of gas pipes.

This is how Qwest got started.  They contracted with the railroads to 
lay fiber in their right of way.

Also, El Paso Natural Gas begat El Paso Networks, which later became 
known as Alpheus Data Services.

Around here, you'll find varied ownership of the fiber under the ground 
and on the poles.   An interesting one that we are watching play out is 
TW-Telecom (fka Time Warner Telecom) and Time Warner Cable.   They used 
to have the same ownership until Time Warner spun off the enterprise 
telecom division.   Now they fight over poles and facilities.  Both TWT 
and TWC are bidding on entry into our building.

Closer to home, bringing fiber into our building we have some fiber that 
the carriers have brought in and they retain ownership, other fiber that 
runs a couple blocks underground that we own as a spur to meet up with a 
ring, and around the neighborhood there is fiber owned by no fewer than 
half a dozen companies running in common routes underground.   Whenever 
there's a construction project, the streets get marked and each carrier 
has its own paint, all on the same spots.

Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
chris at virtbiz.com | (972) 485-4125