AT&T project Lightspeed

I know we have several phone employee members here so I thought I would bring this up. There is a rather large article in todays Chicago Tribune about project Lightspeed. Evidently the equipment enclosures are on the LARGE side and it has quite a lot of people upset. It's one of those "not in my front yard" problems. Several villages are stating that there is nothing that can be done because it is within AT&T's contract that they can put the equipment anywhere they want!!

Gary, I found the article in the Trib on line. Here's the link:

bulky boxes

I agree with you Chris, but you know how money talks,. bs walks.In the last 6 yrs the wires in front of my house have doubled,so as I look out over the Fox,I see electric,cable,phone and now fiber for the lightspeed cabinet a mile down the road.The road behind me about 1/2 mile away,mostly farm land everything is buried.Yet if I complained you think I'd make the Trib? Barrington Hills is the same way,they complain about bad cell coverage,but want no towers and complain about no DSL but don't want the boxes.By the way these boxes are called V Rad's and the last house on the line can be no farther than 3000 ft. A couple in Texas have had the batteries explode and catch on fire, another reason not to have one in your yard.

Hey,
Don't be knockin manholes!
I think all cabling should be under ground. It is more astetically pleasing and it is more business for our company.
I like to say, any day on top of the grass is a good day, but if your under the grass, I hope your in one of our manholes.
(Am I setting myself up, or what?)

Steve

John alot of those jobs are already been taken by people who had been let go and the union got back,guy's like the Ameritech pbx, Meridan? system installer and repairmen.They are not going to take us guy's we know too much.My thoughts are when the calls come in at 6pm that my tv dosen't work,the company will want someone who can go out and get it up and running with the least fuss,guy's that have been there done that.You can put the old coin dept guy's out checking batteries.These v rads bypass any cev's & rt's,that fiber comes right out of the office and direct to the v rad.The phone service comes into the sac just like it always did,either copper,DPG or PG then the x connect is made to the v rad block,then goes out to it then the video is "injected" and then returnes to the sac and is x conned to the f2 to go to the house.These new hires I told you about last week,will install the systems in the house and trouble shoot the vrads and the house.When they prove the trouble outside,thats where we come in.Some sac's have to be upgraded,many of those newer 1/4 turn self stripers don't have the proper amount of twists in the blocks and have to be changed and oddley enough those old 3M punch down boxes are being left in place,they are ok.I guess you guy's did a good job of putting them in.A big money maker will be when a locator removes a bond,the signal will be lost for as long as that bond is off.
Now that we have bored everyone here,how did the Homestead trip go? Oh and by the way it's starting to snow out

Hollywood, now you really know how Jbear feels

John, It's was HW's comment about you not understanding some of the engine tech talk. Now it's Erik turn not understanding phone tech talk!!!!

Eric- I know your kidding John but you'd be surprised how tough a job it is-You see most splicers are color blind Hardest part of the job is the weather and setup is all important.Luckily your not doing cable cuts every day,usually only Friday afternoons on major holidays!
John- There is talk of a 3000ft max from sac and rumors as low as 1500 ft,won't know for sure until we fire them up.You'd think with the other states using them already someone would know,but were are only a communications company,we don't talk to each other . We're supposed to get a new meter to check bonds,it clamps around the cable like a locator ring.Should have paid more attention to who the instructor was,he was an ex splicer from Ohio.

Not sure,copper is already in and working,so it relatively cheap and I don't know about bandwith on wireless.I think we'll see a big push for fiber to the house next since when this project is done,it will be with in 3000 ft of the farthest house.This is the track Verizon is now on.Some of our new subdivisions now are going this way.At one time there was a concern about the phone line not working when the power was out,ie if you have fiber to the house you have to have a converter which is end user powered and if electric is out no phone no 911 calls.But now everyone has cell phones and that is why the phone companies want to get away from just phone service and sell video and data.Any coincidence that the largest phone compaines have the largest cell systems?Used to be you had 1 maybe 2 lines to your house.Now you think your getting back at the phone co by getting rid of your land line,but then you have a cell,your wife has one,both kids and your elderly parents do too.They have developed the prefect way to seperate you from your cash!

Thanks Pete...musta missed HW's comment on my lack of knowledge as to what exactly goes on under the motor box.
eric; You hit it.....was really an easy job in one aspect...everything we did was in counts of five...five colors repeating themselves. If you dug up a "big black cable" with your backhoe...and someone told ya it was a fiber...he was trying to scare ya. Fiber is always enclosed on an orange plastic conduit and the stuff I've seen is orange or silver. Keep on diging without calling OUPS...your local cable mait guys will love ya.
Gary: I remember when they were selling DSl and told the customers it would run 18k from the CO! More like 12k on a good day depending on the weather and how many gauge changes your UG had. And don't forget all that bridge tap that wasn't on the print and you had to go looking for. So if they are now saying 3k...well I'll believe it when you see it. Fiber to the curb here in Florida in lots of the new developments but I have not had the chance to talk to any of the guys here that work on it. Interesting to see where your cuts and dig-ups are on Friday afternoon or holidays...just like ours were.

john

I did call oops and this black cable wasnt marked, but before i called oops on the opposite side of the property i dug up the old gas line, at the time i thought it was live and it scared the s--t out of me, thats what lead me to call oops after that

It always amazes me that if your looking for that wire,gas pipe or cable you can't find it,I guess that's Murphy's Law.
John, how many job's you been on that the homeowner thought the orange lines were for them to use as a guide to line up their fence-
Sometime when were all together,I'll tell the story of the woman who was up in her office's attic telling me how to do my job and the way she got back down in a hurry.

Never in the 18yrs I installed did I damage a ceiling,but it took a long time to live it down when I put my foot through my own.I'm not sure but I don't think the guy's go in anymore,no time, they get 6,7 jobs a day,strive for 5 you know.I got out of installation because my back couldn't take it any more in attics.

jbear wrote: You think many guys go in attics anymore to fish walls?! john

All the new guys started as TV cable installers! "How come that long drill bit has that hole in the end of it??"

Gary, I was being facetious with the hole in the end of bit. My favorite if you have access to both the top and bottom via the attic and basement is dropping the beaded chain into the wall cavity. I learned that trick from a old alarm installer.