Internet over fiber optics?

[Coytee]

Is ATT U-verse, provided over fiber optic, worth the hassle of dealing with AT&T?  

 

Our neighbors have some pretty deep pockets.  We live 15 miles out of town, they are developing 40 acres and wanted internet access for the neighborhood (theirs).  I'm told they are paying for AT&T to bring a fiber optic line to them. (I've not yet spoken with them to verify this)

 

They're going to run it down the road (the conduit was installed this past week).  It's going up their hill and to the "back side" of their property.

 

Their back side, butts up against our back side.  Without having measured, I'm guessing the distance from their terminal point to my house would be 1/8-1/4 mile as the crow flies.

 

They're trying to contact someone to find out the incremental cost to bring the line on over to us.

 

I'll admit I'm intrigued on tapping into a fiber optic line however:

 

1.  I have detested dealing with AT&T over the years

2.  I understand that I would have to pay for the laying of the fiber optic line to us (and as of yet, have no idea of what that might cost)

 

I told the wife, If it's $1,000 then it might be no big deal....  if it's $25,000, well, I can buy a lot of months using my satellite internet for that kind of cash, even if it is slower.

 

Anyone know if making the homeowner pay to install the fiber optic line is typical?

 

Anyone have Uverse over fiber optic able to brag on how great it is?

 

 

 

[oldtimer]

I have Verizon Fios which has fiber optic up to the house and really like it.  It has been extremely stable, way better than the cable I used to have.  Like you, I detest AT&T, so you are in a tough spot.  Let cost be your guide?  It could be handy to have the fiber optic to your house in the future.

[JJkizak]

I wonder why they are laying conduit when a fiber optic cable is direct burial? The cables around hear are about 1.5" in diameter and orange colored.

JJK

[Coytee]

Ok, so part II....

 

If this is done....  do you know if our land-line can be moved over to the fiber optic line?

 

One reason I detest AT&T is again, we're out in the boonies.  This peninsula of land where we live currently has a total of 7 homes.  I don't know the size of the peninsula but let's call it 800-1,000 acres.....  and I am THE last house.

 

To be blunt, ATT has never provided what I'd call 'quality' phone service.  Any issue with rain, we have no signal, then for 2 weeks after rain, we have static in line.  Some of those (along the roadside) phone posts are at 45 degree angles where they've been hit.  One had zero cover on it so they wrapped it in plastic.  One near my house, also had no cover and a bunch of wires had fallen out and were sitting in a puddle of water.  (wonder why I have static when it rains....hmmmmm....)

 

I got the local one fixed but there's simply too few houses out our way for them to really care very much.

 

If I could move over to the new line it would heighten my interest.

[Paducah Home Theater]

Anyone know if making the homeowner pay to install the fiber optic line is typical?

 

 

With anything like cable, fiber, or natural gas, it's usually all about the population density.  Private companies want a return on their investment and they're not going to voluntarily make a huge investment for nothing.  I think there are federal programs that pay some of them to develop areas anyway but they're not going to do it just because they are nice.  Electrical is a different story, there's actually laws in place that make utility companies run electric to your home no matter where it is.  

 

As for fiber itself, it's nice in that there are never any outages unless a server messes up at the central office but even then it recovers quickly.  You don't have to worry about the line getting hit by lightning and coming into your house.  Ice storms, lightning, cloudy days, falling trees, none of that matters with fiber.  Only way you can kill it is to dig.  

 

I have fiber in a low density area because my provider is a co-op, basically they are required by law to either return the profits to the customers or reinvest it.  Basically rather than pay shareholders, they invest it into fiber optic.  AT&T isn't going to do that.  

[Paducah Home Theater]

 do you know if our land-line can be moved over to the fiber optic line?

 

I can't speak for AT&T but phone over fiber is no problem.  Ours runs over fiber.  

[Rich_Guy]

I use Time Warner Cable, it has supposedly been all fiber optic even before Time Warner bought the previous company we had. The speed and reliability have been great when I had problems a few year ago it was from my own router.

 

Even though it is supposed to be all fiber optic I have always had coaxial cable coming into my home, I think that is always the case from others I have known they all have only had coaxial cable enter their home even though they were on fiber optic systems.

 

I used ATT for one year worst internet provider I ever used, slowwwwwwwwwwww I complained they upgraded me still slowwwwwwwww. I quit as soon as a year was up but it was apparently a day or so too soon and they charged me like a $100.00 for ending my contract early.

 

ATT sucks I will never use them again.

 

For phone I use Ooma  internet phone costs me about $4.00 a month after purchasing the Ooma telo unit which can be about $49.00 to $$99.00 now it was $250.00 at the time I bought mine but has come down since then.

 

Ooma is GREAT

Edited April 9, 2016 by Rich_Guy

[Coytee]

I wonder why they are laying conduit when a fiber optic cable is direct burial? The cables around hear are about 1.5" in diameter and orange colored.

JJK

 

That is exactly what is being buried.  I've just presumed it's conduit.  I have not looked very close at it however, your description is exactly what I've seen.

 

What they've done though is strung say, 100' from point A to point B.  Then, at point B, they strung another 100 feet from B to C.  At each location, they have 10-15 feet of extra conduit/fiber extending out of the ground.  I guess that is so they can dig it down, make their splice and have some extra to work with.  (??)

 

I was just presuming they were laying cable and the fiber part would have to be intact from point of origin to termination location.  I guess I'm wrong.

 

At first, I didn't know what it was....  it was too small for water pipes (we're all on wells), we already have a buried (and crappy) phone line.  When I heard fiber was on the way, I just presumed it was conduit.

[Paducah Home Theater]

 

Even though it is supposed to be all fiber optic I have always had coaxial cable coming into my home, I think that is always the case from others I have known they all have only had coaxial cable enter their home even though they were on fiber optic systems.

 

If you're talking about what I think you are, you can't actually have fiber coming all the way in and hooking up to your laptop.  There is some equipment that gets installed near the outside of your home that reads the fiber signal.  At that point, at with least mine, it gets converted into like a DSL wire, and that's what actually comes in. I imagine they could do something similar with co-ax.  

Edited April 9, 2016 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters

[Coytee]

ATT sucks I will never use them again.

 

I almost hate to admit but that is also my attitude.

 

I can be a very stubborn person.....  however, I might find room to bend if this is the real deal ....and....  the installation cost isn't severe.

 

I gotta figure out where/how to find out.

[oldtimer]

 

 do you know if our land-line can be moved over to the fiber optic line?

 

I can't speak for AT&T but phone over fiber is no problem.  Ours runs over fiber.  

 

Same here.

[Rich_Guy]

I added to my comment above, check out Ooma phone service highly recommended!

[Coytee]

There is some equipment that gets installed near the outside of your home that reads the fiber signal.  At that point, at with least mine, it gets converted into like a DSL wire, and that's what actually comes in. I imagine they could do something similar with co-ax.  

 

I was presuming same...  that I'd have some form of junction/converter box at the corner of my house and then convert over to my internal wiring....  which brings up another issue.

 

What is used inside?

 

Would I still use my RG6 to get from outside (fiber box) to router?

[USNRET]

Ours is twisted pair from the fiber node (about 1/4-1/2 mile away) to the street junction box then coax to the house. All connections in the house are typical coax F connectors. I pay $58 total per month for 300 down / 20 up.

[Paducah Home Theater]

 

What is used inside?

 

Would I still use my RG6 to get from outside (fiber box) to router?

 

 

I've basically got a DSL modem in a wiring box that has an ethernet cable coming out of it, that plugs into a router and big switch that distributes it through the house.  I don't know what AT&T would do.  

[oldtimer]

Ours is mated to the internal coax starting at the house, no problem.  The phone service is the same, mating up to the existing phone wires in the house.  The phone line is backed up with a battery pack so you still have the phone service in a power outage.

Edited April 9, 2016 by oldtimer

[nlt6mor]

I just won the lottery!   I am 3.5 miles from town and on the end of a DSL line and get maybe at best 4 mps for internet speed.  Last week the telephone company just stopped out and asked if we wanted fiber.   The company got a grant for expanding rural broadband.   They got 150,00 and will get 30 farm housed fibered.  Our road was one that was picked.  They can pull fiber a 1.5 miles from the main road and cover 5 homes in that pull.   I never thought I would see that in my lifetime.  So now I am back to considering 4K and HDMI 2.2A being important to my future.   I just can quite believe it.  Probably take a year yet before I see it.

[Travis In Austin]

It depends on what they are bringing in. If it is a dedicated line it could be very expensive to bridge off of that. If ATT is installing a VRAD (node), they are designed so that anyone can tap off the node. You need to be within about a half mile of the node.

What speed ate you getting now? ATT fiber optic varies widely in what is available. In Austin you can get 300 mbs and even their 1 gig ps service. In some areas only 10 or 10 mps is available.

Here is explanation of what could be available:

"The first flavor, the flavor that everybody wants is a 100% pure fiber installation that terminates at one of the subscriber's home external walls. This version is called FTTP/FTTH fiber-to-the-premises or fiber-to-the-home and it is used only in brand new and affluent subdivisions and not in existing dwellings. AT&T doesn't say what percentage of their uverse customers are on 100% pure fiber (FTTH/FTTP) but estimates place these numbers at less than 5%.

The second flavor, the flavor that everybody will get is called FTTN fiber-to-the-node and is fiber to a distribution device called VRAD (video ready access device) and from the VRAD to the subscriber's home using existing twisted pair copper cables... in short phone wires. The very same cable type that Alexander Graham Bell used more than 100 years ago when he first 'invented' the telephone, the very same corroded and decaying cables that everybody have in their homes today.

The third flavor, the other flavor that everybody will get is ADSL2+. AT&T is secretly and silently pushing this version of uverse and hoping their users will not notice the difference. AT&T is promoting this new flavor under the very same uverse brand as VDSL. Uverse ADSL2+ a much lesser version of uverse FTTN (VDSL) ?"

The first question you need to know is what they are bringing in. That determines what might be available to you.

If it is typical 10, 20 or 30 mps might not be worth it, but if it is the 100, 200 300 mps, or even the Gig service it would blow you away.

[oldtimer]

"The first flavor, the flavor that everybody wants is a 100% pure fiber installation that terminates at one of the subscriber's home external walls. This version is called FTTP/FTTH fiber-to-the-premises or fiber-to-the-home and it is used only in brand new and affluent subdivisions and not in existing dwellings. AT&T doesn't say what percentage of their uverse customers are on 100% pure fiber (FTTH/FTTP) but estimates place these numbers at less than 5%.

 

Classic AT&T.  Verizon Fios is run to every house in town here, regardless of demographic or age of the dwellings.

[T2K]

I don't know what all those numbers mean but I just tested my WiFi cable service and got 53.14Mbps down and 4.35Mbps up. It costs $50 a month. How does that compare to At&T Uverse?

 

Keith