Installing
New Technology, the Old Fashioned Way
by: Lelia Martin, PRTC PR/Marketing
June 22, 2010
When
installing telephone cable in rural areas, Peoples Rural
Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) sometimes has to be
resourceful. Such was the case recently as PRTC began the
first phase of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) cable installation
in Jackson County. As you know, part of Jackson County’s
beauty is its landscape. With sometimes rugged terrain,
steep hills, narrow valleys and forest land, maneuverability
can be difficult when using everyday cable installation
equipment.
Howard Price, outside operations manager at
PRTC, is responsible for all of PRTC’s construction and
outside plant, and has several times seen the need for doing
things the old fashioned way in areas where trucks can’t
easily maneuver. PRTC has utilized R.C. Hibbitts’ crew and
mules through contractors for the construction of aerial
cable many times. On several of these occasions Hibbitts’
has found an unconventional, however nostalgic, solution to
aerial cable installation in our modern times. One such
method is that of using a mule to pull fiber optic cable up
and along the steep hillsides and narrow roads. Price says,
"In cases where pulling cable using trucks and ATVs isn’t a
feasible solution, it is either man or mule. Manpower is
often needed for traffic control and that takes away from
hands needed in the pulling of aerial cable in tough areas."
Challenges such as this call for a little reinforcement.
Requiring only one man for operation, Hibbitts’ mules
provide a unique pulling unit in aerial cable construction,
not to mention an interesting site for passersby along local
highways.
There is always concern for the safety of
construction crews in outside temperatures such as we have
been experiencing lately and with Hibbitts’ mules on the
job, other crew members do not complain and are quite happy
to stand back to the mule’s strength. Hibbitts said that his
mule, Old Bub, can pull as much as 8 or 10 men, obeys voice
commands and stands quietly while not on the job.
PRTC’s FTTH project is underway to meet the
growing demand for high speed DSL service, video
capabilities and the latest voice services. PRTC plans to
deploy fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) throughout its coverage
area. This significant investment in technology lays the
foundation for an upgrade that will enable PRTC to rapidly
activate HDTV video, data, and voice services over their new
FTTH network.
June 8, 2010
PRTC'S FIBER-TO-THE-HOME CONSTRUCTION IN PREPARATION TO
CONNECT HOMES IN Jackson county TO NEXT-GENERATION
BROADBAND
A growing demand for high
speed DSL service, video capabilities and the latest voice
services drives Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative to
enable its customers to have access to the latest in
technology. PRTC plans to deploy fiber-to-the-home (FTTH)
throughout its coverage area. This significant investment in
technology lays the foundation for an upgrade that will
enable PRTC to rapidly activate video, data, and voice
services over their new FTTH network.
The Jackson County deployment of FTTH
has begun. PRTC has already invested over 4 million dollars
in the beginning phase of this Jackson County FTTH project
that will reach into the Gray Hawk, McKee, and Waneta
communities. PRTC plans to begin offering FTTH to customers
in those areas in late 2011. Immediately customers can
expect to see contractors from Triple D Construction working
closely with PRTC engineers. There will be installation of
new aerial and buried fiber optic cable. Questions or
concerns regarding this can be directed to the PRTC office
at 287-7101.
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is the delivery
of a communications signal over optical fiber from the
operator’s switching equipment all the way to a home or
business, thereby replacing existing copper infrastructure
such as telephone wires and coaxial cable. Fiber-to-the-home
is a relatively new and fast-growing method of providing
higher bandwidth to customers. Connecting homes directly to
fiber optic cable provides enormous improvements in the
bandwidth that can be provided to customers. DSL modems rely
on copper wire to deliver signals to your home – and copper
can deliver high bandwidth only over short distances.
Optical fiber does not have this limitation and thus is able
to carry high bandwidth signals over great distances to
homes and businesses. Only fiber-to-the-home can deliver the
immense bandwidth that the online and video applications of
the future will require.
With online options of feature length
movies for download, online gaming, watching your favorite
television programs and news online, as well as the option
to upload your own movies to email and the internet for
viewing by others, there is a higher demand for more
bandwidth than ever before. PRTC's FTTH will also bring
expansion to the Peoples Telecom Digital Cable lineup,
including HDTV and other features such as Video On Demand.
PRTC wants to empower our customers with the fastest and
most reliable network, Fiber-to-the-home will do this.
