Thick Orange Cable

[mdonnelly]

Some company (not marked as a telco provider) is burying a thick orange cable down the length (about 1 mile) of the street leading to my street. Actually, I see this being done in more than one neighborhood. I understand the orange is the designated color for a communications cable (including fiber optic), but I haven't seen any information about a fiber provider bringing service to my semi-rural town (Mustang, OK).

Does anyone know if this activity is a harbinger of future fiber-optic service to the premises?

 

[TV Junkie]

ATT did this in our area to provide fiber access as our T1 was maxed and it was either multiple T1s or fiber.

 

[Juan]

Telcos use contractors for fiber all the time...if they are digging anything up..they would need a permit..check with your town hall on who pulled the permit

 

[Jimbo]

How big is it ?
Might be orange conduit that they would run Fiber in.

 

[mdonnelly]

I checked the city's online records for permits but couldn't find anything.

The cable diameter seems to be about 3 inches, maybe 4 inches.

If it's fiber, how does it get from the cable buried along the road to someone's house?

 

[907TECH]

It is a duct, fiber is coming through most likely. Does not mean it is going to serve anything in that area.

 

[Juan]

I checked the city's online records for permits but couldn't find anything.

The cable diameter seems to be about 3 inches, maybe 4 inches.

If it's fiber, how does it get from the cable buried along the road to someone's house?

Large green box usually

 

[NYDutch]

Back in my working days I watched crews bury several fiber runs across the road from my office. All of it was for backbone use by several area ISP's. We couldn't get FTTP until a couple of years later...

 

[thomasjk]

When AT&T put fiber in our neighborhood they pulled the orange cable through green boxes. From there individual lines are buried to the house.

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[arlo]

Are you sure it's not natural gas line? Look for a heat fusing rig where they splice sections.
Or you could try asking one of the guys. It's on the surface up here in the woods tying wells together.

 

[thomasjk]

Natural Gas lines are yellow here in NC. Orange is used for communication cable.

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[SandFarmer]

APWA Utility Color Codes​

The American Public Works Association (APWA) recommends the following guidelines be used when marking underground utilities.

	White = Proposed Excavation
	Pink = Temporary Survey Markings
	Red = Electric Power Lines, Cables, Conduit and Lighting Cables
	Yellow = Gas, Oil, Steam, Petroleum or Gaseous Materials
	Orange = Communication, Alarm or Signal Lines, Cables or Conduit
	Blue = Potable Water
	Purple = Reclaimed Water, Irrigation and Slurry Lines
	Green = Sewer and Drain Lines

I know Natural Gas is Yellow from watching the utility company snake a new line from the street under my lawn, under the driveway, under more lawn to the house. This was all part of a renovation so that the new Starbucks 4 blocks away could have a better gas supply. Only my neighbor and I got it. Now come do my sewer . . .

 

[NYDutch]

APWA Utility Color Codes​

The American Public Works Association (APWA) recommends the following guidelines be used when marking underground utilities.

	White = Proposed Excavation
	Pink = Temporary Survey Markings
	Red = Electric Power Lines, Cables, Conduit and Lighting Cables
	Yellow = Gas, Oil, Steam, Petroleum or Gaseous Materials
	Orange = Communication, Alarm or Signal Lines, Cables or Conduit
	Blue = Potable Water
	Purple = Reclaimed Water, Irrigation and Slurry Lines
	Green = Sewer and Drain Lines

I know Natural Gas is Yellow from watching the utility company snake a new line from the street under my lawn, under the driveway, under more lawn to the house. This was all part of a renovation so that the new Starbucks 4 blocks away could have a better gas supply. Only my neighbor and I got it. Now come do my sewer . . .

Those are the temporary marking colors used for those ubiquitous "Call before you dig" flags and painted markings, but not necessarily the colors of the buried utility medium itself.

 

[Jim S.]

About 20 years ago the local natural gas utility used orange plastic pipe about 4". A few years ago, they were using grey plastic. I haven't seen a 4" fiber duct, but the buried ~1" conduit I've seen for TV and local phone has been orange. Verizon's long-haul arm just ran a new aerial fiber line in black conduit for some reason. They lashed it right up with the two existing non-conduit cables, so it seems like overkill for damage prevention.

 

[bluenerd]

Some company (not marked as a telco provider) is burying a thick orange cable down the length (about 1 mile) of the street leading to my street. Actually, I see this being done in more than one neighborhood. I understand the orange is the designated color for a communications cable (including fiber optic), but I haven't seen any information about a fiber provider bringing service to my semi-rural town (Mustang, OK).

Does anyone know if this activity is a harbinger of future fiber-optic service to the premises?

Probably Cox. But I drove around looking at the white poles with orange tips hoping it was OEC. The ones along 152 say Cox, AT&T, and MCI (seems Verizon bought the name). The ones sprouting in neighborhoods say Cox.

Damn it. I want OEC so I can fire those losers. OEC says Mustang by the end of the year is the goal.

 

[solarvic]

The original steel pipe gas line that services gas wells in my brothers area started leaking. I think they were 6 inch dia. Since some of the wells quit producing they didn,t need a whole new 6 inch pipeline. They just shoved plastic line about 3 or 4 inch diameter thru the inside of the old steel pipe so they still could recover the wells that are still producing. . The line was blue. Around here land owners were paid between $4000.00 to $5000.00 an acre to lease thier land for the shale gas. If your land already has a conventional well the present lease holder can retain the land below the present well then the landowner doesn,t get the bonus. If the well quits producing the lease with the well owner has to relinquish the lease. So i think the owner of the wells put that blue line in so he could retain the lease. So in pennsylvania the landowner gets free gas from the well that is on his property.

 

[Mario Lombardi]

The original steel pipe gas line that services gas wells in my brothers area started leaking. I think they were 6 inch dia. Since some of the wells quit producing they didn,t need a whole new 6 inch pipeline. They just shoved plastic line about 3 or 4 inch diameter thru the inside of the old steel pipe so they still could recover the wells that are still producing. . The line was blue. Around here land owners were paid between $4000.00 to $5000.00 an acre to lease thier land for the shale gas. If your land already has a conventional well the present lease holder can retain the land below the present well then the landowner doesn,t get the bonus. If the well quits producing the lease with the well owner has to relinquish the lease. So i think the owner of the wells put that blue line in so he could retain the lease. So in pennsylvania the landowner gets free gas from the well that is on his property.

Yup my buddy bought a house in PA with a gas well.

Gas was free for many years until the pipe broke and they had to prove ownership to have them come fix it so he could continue getting free gas.

Turns out some girl inherited the well from her grandmother who passed away like 20 years ago, who lived on the property as a child.

The girl was going to sell the rights to the well for like $3000, but then someone in her family got smart and told her to demand more money, to the tune of $10,000

Finally they agreed on $100/mo.

My buddy got tired of paying the $100 to her after several months so he just brought in propane and stopped the monthly payments.

About a year later she had a baby, needed money and settled for $1000.

He didn’t want to squeeze her, but the gas well rights where supposed to come with the house.


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[solarvic]

The gaswell on my property is a conventional well that is still producing after 19 years. So with free gas and the solar I put in It makes my retirement a little easier. No electric bill and no heating bill. My solar makes enough to cover my air conditioning. I got a 30% tax write off too so didn,t pay any income tax for a couple years. I would recomend anyone that is young enough to get the payback to go ahead and do it if you have a good spot to install it .

 

[navychop]

So all I need to do is find such a spot, before NG is phased out, that has good sun and is near a military hospital.

Sigh.

 

[arlo]

I did the numbers in Florida. A guy had 3 pallets of PV equipment dropped off and professionally installed.
Cost: appx $40k. His electric bill for a 2 story ranch house was was previously ~$240/mo.
After installation in July with net metering he was getting $80/mo. back. That was in 2008 ish.

7 years ago I priced 7.5kw of PV with inverter and charge controller using Solar World panels and an OutBack inverter and charge controller. I was told by United Electric's alternate energy rep to just get a bunch of salvage yard car batteries instead of solar/fork lift/golf cart ones. Cost w/o batteries and racking: $15k

2 years ago the same setup as above with Canadian 320 watt panels: $11-12K.

Right now I have just 4-320 watt panels and the inverter/charge controller as a test. Nothing fancy. I want to build a steerable mount from a robust C-Band sat mount for 6 panels. No net metering, nothing finalized yet.
A bit of home wiring snaked to run my living room and fridge. The 30% papers in file folders helped a lot for IRS.
They're there if they ever ask.
I have a dedicated 12 VDC circuit to replace all of the 12V wall warts. The fridge switches to mains with a timer and relay for after dark. Country Livin' !
My REC bill averaged $100-$120/mo. Now it's around $80. Even in the dead of winter. I still have to sweep the panels though after a snow storm. Yes. you can do it too.