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“Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

arstechnica.com

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Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#21

Post by AnthonyMouse »

mi100hael wrote: post #10
rayiner wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is to get fiber into the last mile. Vast parts of the country are still under construction. New subdivisions are being built, and people are moving there from established northeastern/midwestern states. Requiring conduit to be put underground as you build the roads for a new subdivision, for example, would dramatically reduce the costs to deploy fiber in these places.

This would only apply to projects receiving federal funding, which I don't imagine includes most subdivisions. Most likely just interstates, state highways, and maybe county highways. That wouldn't necessarily get fiber through your front door, but it should get it far enough out to provide a viable high speed option for rural households that are currently stuck with dial up or satellite.

There is no reason we couldn't or shouldn't also do the same thing at the state level.

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#22

Post by dbg31415 »

33W wrote: post #14
stronglikedan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and tore up everyone's lawn in the process They just did this to mine and a few neighbors, even though they weren't supposed to. They had a Ditch Witch (DW) Directional Drill [0] that would tunnel under all the lawns, and only make a little hole every few houses. However, they didn't count on the coral rock, and the DW broke, so they had to bring in a bigger one which was going to take a week or two. Well, they wer…

Or for me, accidentally cut the copper line to the rest of the neighborhood and had to dig a trench in my front yard to repair it. I'm on the corner and towards the front of the subdivision, so I had quite a bit of work being done over the past 6 months.

And they leave a pile of dirt, plant the wrong grass sod, put the sprinklers in the wrong place, and then tell you that they are done because it's just "cosmetic" issues left? Sounds so familiar.

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#23

Post by ec109685 »

mi100hael wrote: post #10
rayiner wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is to get fiber into the last mile. Vast parts of the country are still under construction. New subdivisions are being built, and people are moving there from established northeastern/midwestern states. Requiring conduit to be put underground as you build the roads for a new subdivision, for example, would dramatically reduce the costs to deploy fiber in these places.

This would only apply to projects receiving federal funding, which I don't imagine includes most subdivisions. Most likely just interstates, state highways, and maybe county highways. That wouldn't necessarily get fiber through your front door, but it should get it far enough out to provide a viable high speed option for rural households that are currently stuck with dial up or satellite.

They can make taking federal highway funds contingent on adopting a dig once policy for locally funded projects. This is how the speed limit and drinking age was standardized across the country.

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#24

Post by saycheese »

rayiner wrote: post #2

This is a great bill. It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband, but the total amount of subsidy is minimized by tying it to digging that's already going to be done. This should be extended to power line and water pipe construction. No reason you can't put in some dark fiber while you've got someone up there hanging new power line (which I imagine is way more expensive). Most importantly, it minimizes market d…

>> "It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband"

Maybe it's me, but $3 billion is not a small amount of money:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13941757

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#25

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #2

This is a great bill. It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband, but the total amount of subsidy is minimized by tying it to digging that's already going to be done. This should be extended to power line and water pipe construction. No reason you can't put in some dark fiber while you've got someone up there hanging new power line (which I imagine is way more expensive). Most importantly, it minimizes market d…

[deleted]

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#26

Post by tomschlick »

eldavido wrote: post #19

Isn't all the trouble we have due to last-mile shenanigans? Until we can address that problem, this seems a bit moot. Perhaps what we need is something like this, but at the state/local level.

I believe the idea is that if you can reduce the costs to the major lines, it frees up more money to work on the last mile.

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#27

Post by jmcdiesel »

saycheese wrote: post #24
rayiner wrote: post #2

This is a great bill. It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband, but the total amount of subsidy is minimized by tying it to digging that's already going to be done. This should be extended to power line and water pipe construction. No reason you can't put in some dark fiber while you've got someone up there hanging new power line (which I imagine is way more expensive). Most importantly, it minimizes market d…

>> "It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband" Maybe it's me, but $3 billion is not a small amount of money: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13941757

$3B is pretty small on the large scale. Especially when you consider the cost of adding them later (while it may not be paid for up front by the government, costs of doing construction, like closures, do add to gov't costs)

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#28

Post by [deleted] »

saycheese wrote: post #24
rayiner wrote: post #2

This is a great bill. It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband, but the total amount of subsidy is minimized by tying it to digging that's already going to be done. This should be extended to power line and water pipe construction. No reason you can't put in some dark fiber while you've got someone up there hanging new power line (which I imagine is way more expensive). Most importantly, it minimizes market d…

>> "It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband" Maybe it's me, but $3 billion is not a small amount of money: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13941757

[deleted]

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#29

Post by jmcdiesel »

eldavido wrote: post #19

Isn't all the trouble we have due to last-mile shenanigans? Until we can address that problem, this seems a bit moot. Perhaps what we need is something like this, but at the state/local level.

Thats why sidewalks are included... having conduit with all new sidewalks would definitely ease the last mile

Re: “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US

#30

Post by late2part »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #27
saycheese wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "It creates a slight public subsidy for broadband" Maybe it's me, but $3 billion is not a small amount of money: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13941757

$3B is pretty small on the large scale. Especially when you consider the cost of adding them later (while it may not be paid for up front by the government, costs of doing construction, like closures, do add to gov't costs)

According to some sensationalist stories I've read, it's only ~10X what we're spending to protect/transport President Trump on his weekend vacations.
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