On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 08:21, Jess Cohen <jess@corenap.com> wrote:
GOOGLE: Dark fiber is optical fiber infrastructure (cabling and repeaters) that is currently in place but is not being used. Optical fiber conveys information in the form of light pulses so the "dark" means no light pulses are being sent. For example, some electric utilities have installed optical fiber cable where they already have power lines installed in the expectation that they can lease the infrastructure to telephone or cable TV companies or use it to interconnect their own offices. To the extent that these installations are unused, they are described as dark.
That is better than the link I was going to reference - reason I was going there was the recent announcement of the Google fiber to the community beta test. Are we seeing the beginnings of another move? Android phone OS, Google voice, Nexus One with the ability to make all calls voip... I heard Google made some major concessions [charging tax on internet purchases of the Nexus One] and is still being blocked on the "cannot be a phone company" end. Maybe if you can show you own a certain amount of infrastructure you automatically qualify as a phone company? I have no idea, I just see lots of little pieces coming together right now... --steve -- steve pirk refiamerica.org "father... the sleeper has awakened..." paul atreides - dune kexp.org member august '09