miss_katrina_kaos wrote:Any update on the 1800 block of Alcatraz? I've been cheerleading for Sonic and have gotten friends and family on it plus got the card a little over two years ago letting me know my area was going to get fiber.
We are in 1826 which is a multi unit building and I know Sonic is providing service a couple blocks away in two directions.
The issue there was an unsafe pole in front of 1881 Alcatraz Ave. It was a 45-foot tall wood pole that was installed in 1966, which had become unsafe due to rot, fungus or damage. That pole was replaced in late 2019 with a new 50-foot wood pole, and we can now include this area in our future infill project queue.
Infill projects can take a long time to accomplish however, because they're very small and we must fit them in between other construction projects that are in process. This is why pole reinforcement and replacement and pole safety, in general, is such a concern for us, because leaving gaps in the network is certainly the last thing we want to do.
So in summary, we'll get there eventually, and I'm sorry for the delay! We do not have much control over the quality of the preexisting infrastructure, so we're somewhat stuck playing the hand we are dealt.
One action that cities can take that can help is to adopt standards that allow for trenchless underground construction. This means microtrenching, as well as directional boring with minimal restoration. If these cost-efficient underground construction methods can be used to work around unsafe poles, sometimes we can avoid issues like this during an initial build. But to date, I don't believe any Bay Area cities have adopted standards. We will be working to promote that in the coming months.
Oh, and cities also need to not block the installation of temporary poles by carriers in cases like this as well. Some cities are wrestling with us on the temporary placement of poles where unsafe conditions exist, which is doubly bad: we cannot deploy, and the unsafe condition remains un-resolved. By placing an adjacent communications-only temporary pole, we can deploy, while contributing to a temporary resolution of the safety condition until the power utility finally replaces their pole. Again, some cities are fine with this while others do not want to see temporary poles used (although we don't think they can actually disallow this - but wrestling this through a legal and complaint process is a waste of time and financial resources for all parties.)
Just a bit of color and background on the process we are engaged in. We are building a lot of network very rapidly, and there are a wide array of issues that come up. Don't get me started on building owners/managers/landlords that do not want to allow us to deploy. (This, despite state law, we are a telecom utility, and despite tenant rights to select the telecom of their choice, etc. Again, costly waste of our time and theirs as we go through the process.)