Black hole in the middle of SF Sunset district

[a-b]

Today is a voting day. What can I do to support the right direction?

[Larns576]

Breed is pretty much guaranteed to win as mayor. Her priority is homelessness, not internet. I dont see much hope for any changes to the current laws.

Farrel tried for city wide fiber and microtrenching, but both have pretty much been abandoned.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/s-f-hit ... rnet-plan/

[a-b]

Why even the micro trenching is needed to solve this problem? Perhaps some alternative solution exists?

[larns576]

it's been discussed briefly here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13020&p=49664&hili ... ess#p49664
There are only a few ways to run fiber cables atm:

Trenches - Owned by PGE/Comcast/ATT, and they don't share. It's too expensive for Sonic to build their own trenches.
Directional Boring - not allowed in S.F.
Microtrenching - not allowed in S.F.
Wireless - unproven and not adopted by Sonic.
Aerial - this is where Sonic is focusing their fiber installs for residential customers.

Sonic has said it's too expensive to build trenches, so there's currently no other way to get fiber to your block. S.F. doesn't seem to want to change any laws to allow trench sharing or microtrenching so there aren't any other alternatives atm.

If Mayor Breed can be convinced to take up the initiatives that Farrell started a couple years ago, then there may be hope; but she's mainly focued on homelessness, not internet connectivity.

You at least have ATT fiber. Many people are still stuck with dsl/comcast.

[In the black hole]

I asked about this in another thread last year and per Dane, although utilities are above ground, streets south of St. Ignatius High School are fed by East-West wiring.

AT&T is offering fiber since they could find a means to do so (e.g. digging up streets).

Thanks for your contribution to this thread. Can you or perhaps Dane please explain why

East-West wiring

is a problem and what could be done to solve it?

Build out in the Sunset is along North-South streets. Streets south of Saint Ignatius are on an isolated segment with no way to get wiring past Ortega Street (schools between Ortega and Rivera).

Could these streets get wired? That's something for Dane to answer.

[dane]

AT&T is offering fiber since they could find a means to do so (e.g. digging up streets).

AT&T doesn't have to dig up the streets, they own the conduit which was put into place when they were the telephone monopoly. In new subdivisions for example, developers were required to install conduit and deed it over to AT&T, because everyone needed a telephone line, right? A similar situation applies to each local Cable franchise owner.

Sonic as a new alternative network builder has a more challenging path: building new infrastructure in a congested and competitive environment, without a monopoly telco or cable regime.

[dane]

The issue there appears to be a combination of two factors: underground utilities on three sides (Sunset, Rivera, and Taraval), plus a number of overloaded poles on Santiago and 39th. Until and unless those poles are repaired, we wouldn't be able to deploy. If and when that occurs, we'd put the region into our "backfill" queue, which we work as engineering and construction resources become available.

[a-b]

I’m happy to mobilize neighbors to ask for pole replacement. Who should we talk to, I'm assuming pg&e ?

Can someone please point out which exact poles needs replacement?

[dane]

According to the most recent data we have, there are or were a couple overloaded poles near the intersection of 39th and Santiago. We are unable to reinforce or repair them ourselves, that would be the responsibility of the pole owners, PG&E and AT&T.

Some customers have files complaints at the CPUC regarding pole safety as a barrier to deployment, but we've seen mixed success in actually getting any action.

And note that if/when the issue is resolved, Sonic would put the region into a backfill queue that depends upon available engineering and construction resources. The small bespoke projects that are required to fill small gaps are challenging because of their unique nature and small scale, so this can result in substantial further delay on our side.

This is why our advocacy on this issue has been around getting pole issues resolved prior to initial construction, so that we can build entire regions successfully and not leave behind gaps. We have not yet had any success in that advocacy unfortunately.

[a-b]

Thanks for your input, Dane.

We will do what we can do on our end. We will start by submitting a petition to replace poles.
Without that feedback, they won't have any reason to push this project forward.

If anyone from this area is interested in joining this effort, please let me know.

One step at the time, I'll keep all of you posted.