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Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 5:04 pm
by lefish
Talked to a great splicing tech at work at California and Bancroft today (Kyle). He showed me the cables and cables within cables and fibers within those cables. He had a very cool machine that joins the two edges of individual fibers and fuses them together -- kind of like an extension cord. He was very enthusiastic about his work and said Sonic treats him very well. He also spoke highly of Dane and the whole organization.

Because that LCP box (FDA 27B) had to be moved across the street from the original planned pole, they now have to create a jumper for all the connections to extend the initial cable pulls across the street. That splicing work should be done in the next day or two. Then it gets tested. Hopefully all the upstream work is done and it can be lit up soon without having to wait for other dependencies elsewhere. He also said there is another crew nearby working on a different LCP today too.

Fascinating to see the nitty-gritty work up close (the individual fibers are super-thin -- maybe 0.5mm -- and can carry up to 10 Gb/s each in a straight line!).

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:13 am
by stuartstlocal
I just got our regular monthly update about construction and it indicated that 39% of the network in my area is activated. Could we get clarification on if our network is our FDA or Berkeley in general or a region?

Still hearing about crews way over in West Berkeley and feeling like our turn in line is so far away here in South Berkeley.

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:50 am
by coyote2
stuartstlocal wrote:I just got our regular monthly update about construction and it indicated that 39% of the network in my area is activated. Could we get clarification on if our network is our FDA or Berkeley in general or a region?

Still hearing about crews way over in West Berkeley and feeling like our turn in line is so far away here in South Berkeley.
I applaud Sonic for today's update saying "39% of the network in your area is activated!". Previously it misleadingly said "in your neighborhood". Area is obviously not one's little FDA. I'm assuming area refers to their whole East Bay rollout plan.

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:16 pm
by amnster
And that's a whopping 2% increase from last month ;P

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:11 pm
by espier
I got the same 39% number in my email today and I'm in Oakland (Longfellow). So it is definitely not just your neighborhood or FDA.

I saw a crew working hard to string fiber today near by office in Southwest Berkeley/Emeryville – 66th and 67th between San Pablo and the railroad tracks. So, things are moving at least!

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 7:23 pm
by dane
The projects are Panther, now 100% complete, which is Albany, Kensington the Northern Berkeley, and Puma, which is now at nearly 40%, that covers Southern Berkeley, Northern Oakland and Emeryville.

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 7:33 pm
by ChrisW
dane wrote:The projects are Panther, now 100% complete, which is Albany, Kensington the Northern Berkeley, and Puma, which is now at nearly 40%, that covers Southern Berkeley, Northern Oakland and Emeryville.
So if our "area" is the Puma project, the 39% completion and the 2% increase from May (as noted by amnster) make sense.

My guess is that the 39% figure represents southeast Berkeley (east of Shattuck), along with the North Oakland hills, Rockridge, etc. Work in those areas was pretty much completed by the end of May--at least I don't recall a flurry of FDA activation announcements in those areas in June. I'm guessing the 2% increase came from the last few FDA's in that group coming online.

Meanwhile, southwest Berkeley, northwest Oakland, and Emeryville have all seen lots of activity, but little, if any, activation since Berkeley finally approved the permits. Hopefully, that will change soon, as the LCP work wraps up, cables get spliced in at the CO, and our FDA's finally go live.

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 10:33 am
by Hoowzer
@dane - a ton of PG&E crews out here on Grayson working on the poles.

Does this mean we could potentially see Sonic Fiber out here?

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:10 pm
by bmich
Just got the magic email I've been waiting for! Looks like McGee/Spaulding is lighting up!

Thanks to dane and all the other infra nerds watching this thread. :)

Re: Gigabit Berkeley

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:53 pm
by lefish
@bmish -- that's great news!

Would you mind sharing your approximate location? Do you know your FDA by chance?