I am pretty interested and waiting to get excited...

[KGIII]

You'll be like a kid with a new toy, David.

The smile will spread across your face.

I plan on doing exactly that. I'm going to download the entire internet! (Not really, as that'd be impossible.)

Fortunately, I have sleepy meds. So, I'll be able to sleep the night before.

I never had any complaints with my original DSL and POTS copper wire service.

I had DSL. The company failed me, and I was put into a position where I had to get a satellite connection. At the time, Starlink claimed it was not available at my address. I ended up with HughesNet. I have pretty much nothing good to say about that company.

As for the DSL, we had an ice storm that took out the phone line. That was in early January of that year. They refused to repair the line until spring, which would have been at least April. It could have been later in the year, as we have a long winter where I live.

I found that unacceptable. I no longer wanted to support that company. The idea of giving them more money was just not an idea that I was willing to entertain. I had good service. I had 24 MB/sec down. This was adequate for my needs.

I do find it relatively amusing that the satellite ISP suddenly stopped with bandwidth caps right about the time that the upcoming fiber service was made public. We'd burn through the allotment in under a week and would have really slow internet after that. Streaming 420p videos would consume all of the bandwidth.

I mostly saved said bandwidth for the missus and used a tethered cellphone for my connection. That was unreliable but was adequate when I did get a signal. I'd sometimes get no signal at all, so I'd use the satellite during those outages.

FCC mandate to eliminate copper wire internet and phone service.

I have opinions about this, purely from a technical standpoint.

I've yet to see how reliable this fiber is going to be. I've seen the telephone wires encased in an icy snowbank and still had a solid connection. The above-mentioned outage was a complete disconnection, as in the telephone line itself was severed. Other than that, it had been extremely reliable.

There are people who live in remote areas (such as myself) who can't afford to pay for them to run fiber up their private roads. There are whole small communities that are going to go without service when DSL would have been perfectly adequate. There are still people who don't even have access to DSL.

Getting rid of a giant chunk of infrastructure and leaving it up to the providers is going to result in areas that still won't get access to broadband. The network of phonelines is very robust and very resiliant. It is my opinion that this will result in many areas being continually underserved.

 

[Bagheera]

Here in the UK it's commonplace to have copper running to the residence from the fibre that leads from the sub-exchange box.
If you've only got 6 neighbours, I'm not convinced the fibre will improve your speed that much. But ... I'm no comms expert and can happily stand corrected.

Call me a cynic but ...
With no police to hand out spot fines and summons for petty traffic infringements, and no municipal services to cock up your expectations at significant expense to you and your neighbours, and no county highways to close your roads every other 5 minutes ... how lucky are you KGill !

 

[KGIII]

how lucky are you KGill !

I live here for a reason. Well, multiple reasons. The weather can be pretty extreme, but I don't mind that.

 

[KGIII]

Son of a biscuit eater!!!

So, they called me to tell me that a tech had missed a step. The installers are something else. The tech should be here this week to finish whatever it was that they missed. They should then call to schedule installation next week.

Fortunately, I don't get all that excited and anticipatory. Still, it'd be pretty sweet to be using fiber right about now.

 

[Trml]

Next week? You're so lucky, and tape standard LTO-10 just got released last month, perfect timing. Better hurry to get the tape library order through the household committee.

 

[KGIII]

Next week? You're so lucky, and tape standard LTO-10 just got released last month, perfect timing. Better hurry to get the tape library order through the household committee.

The linked article was a bit amusing. Tape never really left. It got less common, but it never really left.

And, I can be patient. I've been bandwidth-imporverished for a few years. Another week, or six, isn't going to matter all that much. I do wonder if they bit off more than they can chew. There aren't a lot of us, but we're spread out quite a bit. I've seen their trucks all over the place, well after I'd have expected them to be done with the whole project.

That and the legal issues they faced... They were talking about this quite a few years back. Fidium got involved in 2023. Plans were approved in 2024, along with a vote to allow it. (I could not vote in that instance. I do not live in the town that is actually their target audience.) The vote passed, infrastructure was being installed, and then the complaints from the incumbant came in.

As far as I know, the incumbant was offered first rights but declined to act on it in a timely manner. But, I haven't spoken to the liason and all I have is scuttlebutt.

 

[Trml]

Tape never really left. It got less common, but it never really left.

According to recent tech news there is an upcoming HDD shortage due to AI data centres buying up that production as well. Another good reason to invest into a tape library right away, even if you don't know exact start date for the interwebs-download project already.

I've been bandwidth-imporverished for a few years.

The allotment of infrastructure rights for telco services works similar here. I could write an essay about it.

On the doing front, they do use more trenches for all infrastructure here, though. That said, as we know, fiber has an important physical advantage - it is light. They use machines to blast the fiber through the protective tubes (over-/underground) with air pressure and I have read standard machines can blast up to 6km at once. I'm sure the limit goes down, the more fibers they need, but still - it is long stretches of road to start with and the low weight will help cope with nature's elements overland.

When they connect households with fiber here, they use some sort of boring machine to reach the house in straight lines. It drills and pulls through the tube in one go, once done they simply disconnect the drill bit at the front, and rewind the drilling rod. Next, they blast the fiber through the tube, one straight at a time with careful curves where needed. These boring machines for the last stretch seem very efficient and can also tunnel hundreds of meters, but have a low capacity limit (I have heard six fibers/households). Quite fascinating if one is technically minded.

 

[KGIII]

When they connect households with fiber here, they use some sort of boring machine to reach the house in straight lines.

They're running it all on the utility poles, in the air, which we'll have to see how that holds up in a Maine winter.

Once I have fiber, I'll have no bandwidth caps other than the maximum throughput. I should be able to consume as much bandwidth as I can possibly need and then a whole lot more.

 

[Condobloke]

In the Philippines, they also run it in the air. With great success in most cases.

The greatest disadvantage over there?....Theft.

 

[KGIII]

In the Philippines, they also run it in the air. With great success in most cases.

The greatest disadvantage over there?....Theft.

We don't have that as an issue here. I wonder if they're stealing it because they think there's copper in it?

But I live in a VERY remote area. There's no serious crime here. There might be the odd drunk driver or speeder, but it's otherwise a crime-free area. Even the tourists are well behaved, but that's more of a thing in the village. I don't live in the village. I'm about 40 km (just a tad under) from the village.

In my case, it's a matter of whether or not Mother Nature takes down the lines. I suspect she will. We'll see how well fiber holds up to the extreme weather we experience. For example, we regularly get winds over 100 km/h. This takes down trees, which land on the lines. Copper was pretty resilient, unless completely broken. (Which is what started the whole process that ended up with me no longer having DSL.)

In the winter, we have large amounts of snow and ice storms. Just the weight of ice can snap the lines. Add wind to an ice storm and we've got no infrastructure for a few weeks (which you've witnessed me dealing with in the past).

I wouldn't change it for a million bucks. I live here for a reason. In fact, I live here for many reasons. I wouldn't change where I live for many millions of dollars. I don't really need the money and I like it here. It's where I keep all my stuff!

 

[Condobloke]

I wonder if they're stealing it because they think there's copper in it?

if it is not nailed down, it will be stolen. ...even if it is nailed down, it will still be stolen

The degree of poverty over there is mind blowing. In the vast majority of case it is beyond being tragic. The vast majority accept their 'day to day' with a smile on their faces. They are a happy race, despite their circumstances.

 

[KGIII]

if it is not nailed down, it will be stolen. ...even if it is nailed down, it will still be stolen

Oh, that's a given, I suppose. I was just wondering about the motivation.

I've not been there since 2008 or so, which is quite a while. I was there before some big changes to their society. I can't think of a better way to say that. I'm trying hard not to speak about their political landscape. I guess we can factually state that some of their prior leadership is not having a good time and is incarcerated at The Hague. I was there well before that era and have not been there since.

Between 2008 and 2011, I spent quite a bit of my time traveling. I explored some areas of the globe that others might not ever experience. I even tried to go to North Korea but I was never granted a visa.

 

[Condobloke]

North Korea, can be ....problematic

 

[KGIII]

North Korea, can be ....problematic

Yeah, I was on a bit of an adventure. I've been on every continent other than Antarctica. For example, I hired armed escorts to visit Somalia. We'd have to provide compensation (bribes) to travel through areas that were under the control of a local 'leader'.

These experiences were often humbling and enlightening.

Imagine being offered food by people who already didn't have enough to eat. (In that instance, you eat the food and tell them that it is customary in your country to give gifts to those who feed you, and you give them some local currency that will help feed them for a few more meals.)

Imagine a group of people, largely still kids, casually pointing firearms at you at a makeshift checkpoint. (In that instance, you show them whatever documentation they require and plan on a bribe of about $5 USD.) Imagine again that those people are actually the government's authority and that their income depends on bribes.

I could go on, but it'd lead to politics.

Well, I'll mention one other thing.. It's just an observation.

Around the 'net, it's common to talk about going to Somalia if you want to live in an area without a government. It's very much the opposite, really. Somalia has lots of governments. They're just unofficial, unrecognized, and generally called 'War Lords'.

You can learn a lot by traveling and experiencing other cultures. One thing I've concluded is that, "People are people, no matter where I look."

 

[Condobloke]

The Philippines has a group named, The NPA )New People's Army)

They do not have uniform either, but move among the population unhindered.

They have been around since at least the 1970's

I wont say more re their interaction with the current political regime in Manila

 

[Trml]

I've also had things happen like a vehicle rental agency in a distant country tell me to place some dollars next to my driving licence, and had them accepted as gift by local police for their service to stop us. But your example brought back another memory from the rural remote of an Asian country. About 15% of its population in-officially (by the state) followed Animism or related beliefs at the time of our travel. And some communities still lived fully self-contained - no public utilities whatsoever. We diverted public route to one of the tribes' villages and our guide asked a lady how many words for "to walk" she knows. She knew four. The official national, colonial-period (still recognized as secondary official), her own tribe's, and the one from the next village. The next tribes village was less than 15km away - and spoke a different language (or at least dialect). Picture that for your environment, wherever you live. I'm no anthropologist but it seems logical to link locally accepted customs of in-official 'toll duty posts' to inhabited land. If one tribe allows the other to move their herds through their land, the herd will grass and water on the way.

It's easy to mirror such customs to the incumbant's behaviour regarding fiber service. The grass and water are bytes of data. We've had our national incumbant throttle Meta services, after they unilaterally cancelled interconnection agreements during price renegotiation. We've had the same incumbant ordered by court not to "special" offer consumer flatrates limited to their own streaming services. Public utility, eh? Such a civilized phrase.

I do understand your determination of being self-contained enough to get through an icy winter week when nature makes utilities fail. It's a feat to accomplish and be proud of!

 

[KGIII]

It's a feat to accomplish and be proud of!

Oh, it's not some grand idyll. It's mostly that I chose to live in an area with some fairly extreme weather, and I love my modern conveniences. I don't have wind and solar because I'm a hippie; I have them because I'm a fan of electric lights, refrigeration, and using a computer. I don't hunt, fish, or farm because I'm concerned about stability, or anything like that. I do those things because the outcome is delicious.

What I did not know when I bought the property was how unreliable the infrastructure was. I averaged just over 14 electricity outages per year. I'm on a large grid with a low population. It'd often take quite a while for power to be restored.

But, at the end of the day, it does increase my security. If society goes pear-shaped, we'll be pretty good at my house. Well, I still need to buy a dedicated EV, but I think I've finally picked one. I own a number of automobiles, but none of them work very well without gasoline or diesel.

If there's a serious issue getting gasoline or diesel, I'll still be able to generate electricity. I already generate more electricity than I use.

I wont say more re their interaction with the current political regime in Manila

Yeah, I can 'read between the lines', so to speak. The 'no politics' rule makes it difficult to discuss a variety of things. I strongly think that's for the best, even if those having the discussion are in agreement.

I'll add that my trip was fully guided. We even checked out some of the other islands. It's a beautiful place. The people I interacted with were excellent.

 

[theLegionWithin]

What I did not know when I bought the property was how unreliable the infrastructure was. I averaged just over 14 electricity outages per year. I'm on a large grid with a low population. It'd often take quite a while for power to be restored.

my folks live in an area like that - basically any windstorm, of which there are many, will cause grid interruption. sometimes just heavy snow will do it. they've also gone the solar route as they also enjoy the comforts of stable electricity. I find it interesting how more and more folks are adopting off-grid or grid-tied individual electrical generation methods as those become more affordable.

 

[KGIII]

I find it interesting how more and more folks are adopting off-grid or grid-tied individual electrical generation methods as those become more affordable.

I think that's a good thing. I'm not in it for cost-saving reasons. As it stands, some of my stuff will be going on two decades old soon, so that'll get replaced. I just had a good amount of battery storage replaced a few years ago because battery technology had improved.

I'll likely add some additional solar capacity, even though the new panels will be more efficient. We sometimes have long periods without much solar being generated. During those periods, I'm pretty much at capacity. I also have seriously increased my energy use since the inception and I plan on using even more energy.

The turbines should be fine for years to come, so long as they're properly maintained. I've got a guy that comes out once a year to keep everything running for me. Their company does both wind and solar, plus they're local and I prefer supporting the people in my area.

It's really just that I like some aspects of modernity. Electricity and a viable internet connection are things that make my life better. While I have patience, I like the immediacy. It's immediate when I turn on the lights. It's immediate when I want to look something up online.

I did see one of the fiber company's trucks on the main road. I have not seen them on my road, and they have not been on my property. Well, they've been nowhere near my house. In theory, they've been on the property. That wouldn't make much sense, but here we are...

 

[Mike-BTU]

The turbines should be fine for years to come

Turbines?