This past April I was outside stacking wood when I first heard and then saw this bulldozer coming up the road. This piece of heavy equipment was outfitted with a huge ripper blade at the rear of the machine. This I had seen before. Anyone who watches GOLD RUSH is familiar with a ripper blade as it is used to rip frozen ground in Alaska.
The machine operator was not looking for gold, but rather ripping a trench in the ground for the tubing that would carry the fiber optic cables that were going to be installed in this rural area.
Traditional cable uses aq copper cable to deliver phone and Cable TV service and this meant that our internet connection was constantly experiencing high-traffic slowdowns.
Fiber optic cables are made using strands of glass that are only slightly thicker than a human hair to transmit light, or data, over long distances. Because fiber optic cables aren’t shared with other services, you get a dedicated connection with minimal interference. Because fiber uses light rather than electricity, it’s not affected by bad weather, which was always an issue.
Early last year Chenango County was awarded a $1.9 million Community Development Block Grant.
Being that our town is located in Chenango County, we would be one of the lucky residents in the rural Southern Tier of New York State to get high-speed fiberoptic broadband.
Early last week a salesperson stopped by and wanted to know if we were interested in hooking up to this internet service. Without hesitation, I said, "Where do I sign?"
The deal I was offered was a good one.
This past Monday a technician showed up and hooked us up. Not only did he install all of the new components, but he also took the time to reprogram my DirecTv, my wireless router, Alexa and paired our phones to the television. By the time he left everything was working just like before, except that the speed at which everything worked was happening in a split second.
Just yesterday another crew showed to bury the line that went from the junction box at the corner of our property to the house, a distance of over 250 feet.
With the ground frozen, I wasn't sure how they would make out,
but the Ditch Witch made little work of digging a trench 12 inches deep
that the cable would be laid in.
The Ditch Witch threw the blade several times as it ran into some big rocks,
but the operator had it back on in a matter of minutes.
The two guys installing the new fiber-optic cable were all business,
but also polite enough to answer the few questions I had.
Within an hour they had made it down the back driveway.
In less than two hours the machine operator was digging the last 10 feet of trench
to where the junction box was located.
