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Re:Level3 is without peer, now what to do? by malandrew on Tuesday May 20, 2014 @10:13PM (#7776366)
Exactly, TBH I don't understand why we don't have the conduit equivalent of the shipping container. i.e. a completely standardized, royalty free design for laying cables in urban environments that are completely interchangeable and manufacturable by any company.

From there, the city can just lease the space on a basis of (meters * diameter * demand coefficient for a particular route)

Does such a standardized conduit design exist?

Re:Level3 is without peer, now what to do? by ChuckMcM on Tuesday May 20, 2014 @11:26PM (#7776549)
Sort of, there are lots of standardized pipes and conduits which are spelled out in building codes. I've seen installs where the company doing the install just digs a 20" deep trench and unrolls fiber into it, and installs where they put in pipe and then pull fiber through it. I would be really pleased if, by having a known quantity of installs, we could get some work done a sort of standardized civil engineering plan. Part of the permit process with conduits is that the city requires the conduit not crush under some multiple of the max load the street is rated for (assuming its under the street). That involves some number of billable hours by a civil engineer and some test specifications from companies. If there are more standard versions of these things that can be pre-approved for a wide variety of situations, it will reduce the cost of installation.
Re:Level3 is without peer, now what to do? by martinald on Wednesday May 21, 2014 @08:46PM (#7781559)
Yes, but there is still a very heavy cost in maintaining these conduits. They often collapse under a road (for example), which means closing the road off, digging it up, and then repaving the whole thing which is very expensive to serve a few houses or whatever.