NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Don Marti on rights of way and net neutrality
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/freedom/property-rights/
[ I watched the U-verse deployment here from ground-breaking to fiber pulling, to VRAD installations. Whole thing seemed to take a couple of years. I've got lots of stories -- and lots of photos. Apparently AT&T finally got a handle on the exploding VRADs -- caused by bad li-ion batteries. But one thing AT&T never seems to mention about VRADs is how *incredibly* noisy they can be. When their fans are running full blast, it's a roar that can be heard from across a street. Pity the poor folks with VRADs planted right in front of their houses.
AT&T has to place VRADs in close proximity to existing b-boxes or other terminal junctions -- they need to be as close as possible to subscriber premises. In some cases, depending on logistics, VRADs may actually be across the street from terminals, requiring digging up streets to lay the interconnects (that's the situation with the VRAD that serves my locale -- it's on the other side of a very wide street -- in fact it's the farthest I've ever seen a VRAD from a terminal. This is the same terminal that got sheered off a couple of years ago by a swerving driver: ( http://www.vortex.com/exbbox.jpg ) -- with *significant* impact on my operations.
These existing terminals and associated copper loops (in this area, at least) were virtually all originally installed many decades ago -- typically pre-divestiture in the good 'ol Ma Bell Monopoly days. AT&T has now successfully leveraged that monopoly benefit to the placement of this much more obtrusive equipment, operating in an unregulated sphere.
-- Lauren Weinstein NNSquad Moderator ]