Hi from the Google Fiber team

[James Kelly]

Hi everyone,

Allow me to introduce myself, I'm James one of the team at Google working on Fiber to the Home. I've been a Product Manager at Google for over two years, before Google I worked for a silicon valley startup where we developed a range of optical fiber technology including the kind used in Fiber to the Home networks.  Before that I worked in the research labs of a large telecoms carrier developing technology for economically deploying and operating fiber networks so you could say Fiber to the Home is in my blood!

On behalf of the whole Google Fiber team I'm very happy to post here in our new Fiber for Communities discussion group, we'll check in from time to time with updates on the Google Fiber for Communities project and thoughts on gigabit fiber to the home networks. 

Finally, back in April we held a really fun event here at the Googleplex in Mountain View, five teams competed in a fiber trenching 'race' through our parking lot! All the teams were really great to work with and everyone had a great time.  Micro-trenching is one of the ways fiber to the home networks can be constructed, in case you haven't seen it already you can watch the highlights on Youtube :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXMe6WGa84I 

Thanks to all who participated!

/james

James Kelly

Product Manager

Google Fiber 

[Brandon Sheley]

Thanks for the intro James
We watched your micro-tench exercise back in April, and look forward to a future with Google.

-Brandon

[lance ahern]

hi James,

Will your team evaluate the fiber that was laid during the race over
time to identify processes with better long term characteristics
(performance, maintenance, etc.?

thanks,
Lance

[Tim Couillard]

James,

Thanks for the introduction. This project has energized our
government and community.

Also, we've made quite a few new friends along the way. On a recent
trip to Topeka we spent some quality time with their Fiber team and
shared fun/food/and fiber.

Like you, faster Internet is in my blood. I remember installing one-
way cable systems back in the mid 90's and the most common question we
heard was "why do I need faster Internet? I can see my homepage and
get my aol email fast enough". Little did they know what broadband
could/would do. Now, with fiber we're hearing the same question.
Can't wait to be part of that answer.

--Tim
www.GooglePlaysInPeoria.com

[Tim Couillard]

Hey Brandon,

Hope all is well on the Topeka front!

--Tim

[James Kelly]

Brandon and Tim, Thank you!

Lance, During the race we focused on cutting rather then installing fiber or restoring the surface, however we have been studying these other areas in detail. Whereas with the fiber it is quite easy to determine its condition using techniques like OTDR , restoration of the road surface and its structural integrity are less well understood  so we are paying particular attention to these at the moment.

James

[Chris]

Hi, James. I worked with Tim Coulliard and a whole group of people
here in Peoria to put together the Fiber For Communities application.
That was just the technical part, though. The real fun was getting
Peorians jazzed up about Google and the power of high speed internet.
Thanks for giving us a chance to show off our City!!

Chris Setti

On Aug 25, 3:10 pm, James Kelly <k...@google.com> wrote:

[mik...@hotmail.com]

James,

I was impress with the video on how easy it was to trench through the
asphalt. Were looking at using micro-duct in the future for some of
our projects in Northern Okinawa. There's another product you may want
to look at, its called MAXcell.

v/r
Michael Dandro
IT/C Planner
Marine Corps Bases Japan G6

[Patrick]

Hello James,

I spent yesterday out shooting footage of a Minnesota company that
installs fiber by horizontal drilling, and then pulling the fiber
through. They can do the micro-trenching as well. But it seemed to us
and them that when you guys (hopefully) come to Duluth, MN to put in
your network, you'd rather use directional below ground digging.

Any thoughts on that?

[James Kelly]

Thanks Patrick,

 If you are able please post the footage on Youtube, its sounds very interesting.

HDD is another approach to building Fiber to the Home, I have actually had a go on a drilling machine myself and it was quite a challenge to control the drilling rod mechanism especially when inserting new rods, HDD should be very useful in many different soil types. Horizontal Directional Drilling : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directional_drilling 

/james

[Marcel]

Hi everyone,

Let me introduce myself:
My name is Marcel and I work for the biggest contractor in the
Netherlands in installing Fiber to the Home networks.
In the Netherlands point to point is the most common way to deploy
FttH networks. I believe Google has the same strategy instead of PON
networks with optical splitters?
A little more than 1 year ago a Canadian company introduced micro
trenching here in the Netherlands.
For the Dutch situation this is not an option: our pavements exists of
tiles laying loose on soil. It is very easy (and thus cheaper) to lift
these tiles (mostly 30x30cm) and just dig a trench of about 60cm deep
and lay the cables. Asphalt road ways are of course crossed with
horizontal directional drillings, same as canals and railways.
The problem I believe with micro trensching in asphalt is making the
branches to the homes? Approx. every 10 meters a cable (the drop
cable) has to branch of the main route (feeder route) towards the
homes (if the homes are about 10 meters apart). How could this be done
if the main route is under the asphalt? Break the asphalt surface
every ten meters is not an option I would say.
FttH deployment in the Netherlands started about 5 years ago. At the
moment about 600.000 homes are duct passed as we call it and about
450.000 homes are fiber connect (ie. a FTU is installed in the home).
Our company installed about 25% of the fiber connect houses in the
Netherlands.
For an overview of the Dutch situation on FttH see also [url]http://
www.stratix.com/ftth/ftth_2010.php[/url]
I am very curious about Google's strategy and vision on deploying the
FttH networks in the US.
Is Google already partnering with hardware companies?
Please let me know if anyone is interested in the Dutch network
architecture of FttH networks and I will try to post some photo's/
pictures and try to see if I have a video somewhere.

Marcel Nienhuis
VolkerWessels Telecom | FttH

> > > > Google Fiber- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Patrick]

James, just recently I realized I had never responded to your e-mail
back.

Just in case you still wanted to see the footage of the company that
specializes in directional drilling, here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5pFhekI-1Y

[James Kelly]

Thanks Patrick, that is great info, 

YouTube has a load more video about HDD for example:

- here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxnVEdCjzzc

- and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH0O_VKKIVg

Both show common approaches.

James

--