Abandoning Subscribers

We who work the industry are also subscribers. Those of us who work from home are particularly dependent on the local carriers to conduct our daily tasks. If you live in a smaller town, getting adequate bandwidth can be a real challenge. When the local carrier has abandoned the area, getting adequate bandwidth can be impossible without using 40-year-old and expensive T1 service.

What do I mean by "abandoning the area"? Sure, you see a few trucks around, but you also see really bad outside plant that stays bad.

Then, it’s what we don’t see that proves that the area has been abandoned.
• You don’t see new fiber being plowed in.
• You don’t see new aerial cable being placed.
• You don’t see any tree trimming.
• You don’t see downed drops being removed.
• You don’t see pole transfers completed.

Completely ignoring the existing copper plant could be excused (maybe) if the new fiber is in place or even planned, but that is often not the case. If no maintenance or capital money is invested, subscribers must live with awful service.

Remember that subscribers in small towns pay the same price as subscribers in large cities. The quality of service that they deserve is no less.

You might think that this situation happens in the areas served by smaller independent telephone companies, but you would be wrong. Unfortunately, where this is occurring is in small towns served by large carriers.

How does this neglect directly impact subscribers? Let’s take a DSL subscriber 6,000 feet from the DSLAM. In one small town with a larger carrier, 5 Mbps is the most that they will offer. Why? Because faster service will not work reliably with neglected plant.

Five miles away is a much smaller town served by a slightly smaller (but still large) carrier. The 2 towns were once owned by the same carrier, so the design and age of the OSP are about the same. In the neighboring town, a subscriber can get 10 Mbps at 6,000 feet from the DSLAM. And it works reliably. What is the difference?

The difference is the commitment to quality and maintaining copper circuits until they are replaced by fiber. The physical differences are obvious, if you understand standard OSP quality.

I frequently travel the 5 miles to the smaller town when I need to photograph examples of good quality OSP work. I save time and gas because I have yet to find good OSP quality that I can photograph from the streets or alleys in my home town. If I need examples of bad quality, I can find enough within a block of my house.

What if somebody chose to turn things around and improve service after abandoning an area? First, it won’t be easy. This is a "pay me now or pay me later" industry. When you choose to not pay now, you will pay much more later.