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Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunication infrastructure. Because the marginal cost of installing additional fibre optic cables is very low once a trench has been dug or conduit laid, a great excess of fibre was installed in the US during the telecom boom
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work required. This includes planning and routing, obtaining permissions, creating ducts and channels for the cables, and finally installation and connection. This work usually accounts for most of the cost of developing fibre networks. For example, in
Amsterdam's citywide installation of a fibre
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Fibre swaps between competitive carriers are quite common. This increases the reach of their networks in places where their competitor has a presence, in exchange for the provision of fibre capacity in places where that competitor has no presence. This is a practice known in the industry as
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However, dark fibre networks are generally only available in high-population-density areas where fibre has already been laid, as the civil engineering costs of installing fibre to new locations is often prohibitive. For these reasons, dark fibre networks are typically run between
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network, roughly 80% of the costs involved were labour, with only 10% being fibre. It, therefore, makes sense to plan for, and install, significantly more fibre than is needed for current demand, to provide for future expansion and provide for network
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in telecommunications by providing a network with sufficient capacity to take all existing and forecast traffic for the entire region served. This was based on the assumption that telecoms traffic, particularly data traffic, would continue to
128:, the amount of data that could be carried by an optical fibre was doubling every nine months at the time. This progress in the ability to carry data over fibre reduced the need for more fibres. As a result, the wholesale price for
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years of the late 1990s through 2001. The market for dark fibre tightened up with the return of capital investment to light up existing fibre and with mergers and acquisitions resulting in a consolidation of dark fibre providers.
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would not sell dark fibre to end users, because they believed selling access to this core asset would cannibalize their other, more lucrative services. Incumbent carriers in the United States were required to sell dark fibre to
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allows a service provider to offer individual wavelengths. Other wavelengths on the same fibre are leased to other customers or used for other purposes. This is typically done using coarse wavelength division multiplexing
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in case any of the cables fail. Many fibre-optic cable owners such as railroads and power utilities have always included additional fibres with the intention to lease these to other carriers.
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reduced the demand for fibre by increasing the capacity of a single fibre by a factor of as much as 100. According to Gerry
Butters, the former head of
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Meanwhile, other companies arose specializing as dark fibre providers. Dark fibre became more available when there was enormous overcapacity after the
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Because both ends of the link are controlled by the same organization, dark fibre networks can operate using the latest optical protocols using
176:(UNE), but they have successfully lobbied to reduce these provisions for existing fibre, and eliminated it completely for new fibre placed for
273:, which has dark network capacities for video and search data, or wish to operate their own network for security or other commercial reasons.
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network that is run directly by its operator over dark fibre leased or purchased from another supplier. This is opposed to purchasing
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is beamed into the fibre by the fibre provider for management purposes using a transponder tuned to an assigned wavelength.
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These unused fibre optic cables later created a new market for unique private services that could not be accommodated on
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because the wider 20 nm spacing of the wavebands makes these systems much less susceptible to interference.
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following the dot-com crash of the early 2000s that briefly reduced demand for high-speed data transmission.
371:"Bubbles, gullibility, and other challenges for economics, psychology, sociology, and information sciences"
590:"FACT SHEET: Eliminating Unnecessary Regulation of Price Cap Carriers' Transport Services and Facilities"
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Managed dark fibre is a form of wavelength-division multiplexed access to otherwise dark fibre where a
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to add capacity where needed, and to provide an upgrade path between technologies. Many dark fibre
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became the good fortune of another, and this overcapacity created a new telecommunications sector.
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They offer very high price-performance for network users who require high performance, such as
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capacity on an existing network. Dark fibre networks may be used for private networking, or as
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547:"In re: WorldCom, Inc., et al. - WorldCom Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Case No. 02-15533 (AJG)"
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of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This excess capacity was later referred to as
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fibre cables (i.e., cables used in traditional long-distance communication).
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Fibre crew installing a 432-count dark fibre cable underneath the streets of
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for forbearance from DS1 and DS3 transport unbundling obligations.
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built optical-fibre networks, each with the business plan of
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Dark fibre can be used to create a privately operated
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and other places with existing fibre infrastructure.
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are two high-profile examples in the United States.
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collapsed and a number of these companies filed for
633:"Scientists Strive to Map the Shape-Shifting Net"
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87:Much of the cost of installing cables is in the
346:"How Amsterdam was wired for open access fibre"
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116:for the foreseeable future. The advent of
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498:"Speeding net traffic with tiny mirrors"
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31:
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368:
14:
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572:"Why Bubbles Are Good For Innovation"
476:"Board of Directors - Gerald Butters"
170:competitive local exchange carriers
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602:from the original on 27 March 2021
526:Securities and Exchange Commission
60:. Dark fibre may be leased from a
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586:Federal Communications Commission
165:incumbent local exchange carriers
570:Ben Carlson (January 18, 2021).
522:"Global Crossing Ltd (Form 8-K)"
248:wavelength division multiplexing
118:wavelength-division multiplexing
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397:from the original on 2024-01-05
124:'s Optical Networking Group at
631:Markoff, John (1 March 2010).
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478:. LAMBDA Optical Systems. 2006
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369:Odlyzko, Andrew (2010-09-06).
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325:Submarine communications cable
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13:
1:
496:Robinson, Gail (2000-09-26).
344:Wagter, Herman (2010-03-19).
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613:Memorandum Opinion and Order
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227:Dark fibre networks may be
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10:
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666:Fiber-optic communications
320:Indefeasible rights of use
252:metropolitan area networks
174:unbundled network elements
315:Fiber-optic communication
296:Virtual dark fibre using
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58:fibre-optic communication
416:"Gerald Butters Profile"
262:, rather than expensive
151:, the misfortune of one
62:network service provider
615:acts on a request from
298:wavelength multiplexing
222:Internet infrastructure
56:, available for use in
41:
390:10.5210/fm.v15i9.3142
178:fibre to the premises
35:
180:(FTTP) deployments.
109:cornering the market
103:, a large number of
27:Unused optical fibre
595:. U.S. Government.
130:data communications
122:Lucent Technologies
105:telephone companies
638:The New York Times
114:grow exponentially
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237:self-healing ring
89:civil engineering
38:Midtown Manhattan
16:(Redirected from
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588:(19 June 2019).
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453:. Archived from
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256:Gigabit Ethernet
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447:"Gerry Butters"
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258:equipment over
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163:For many years
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147:Similar to the
138:Global Crossing
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40:, New York City
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266:ring systems.
229:point-to-point
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101:dot-com bubble
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457:on 2008-01-28
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206:optical fibre
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153:market sector
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149:Railway Mania
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54:optical fibre
52:is an unused
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642:. Retrieved
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604:. Retrieved
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554:. Retrieved
552:. 2002-11-04
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530:. Retrieved
528:. 2006-08-15
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505:. Retrieved
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480:. Retrieved
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459:. Retrieved
455:the original
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430:. Retrieved
426:the original
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399:. Retrieved
380:
376:First Monday
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364:
353:. Retrieved
350:Ars Technica
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295:
291:pilot signal
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279:data centres
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245:
243:topologies.
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224:networking.
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136:protection.
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214:leased line
186:coopetition
99:During the
83:Motivations
50:unlit fibre
556:2013-05-11
532:2024-01-05
507:2013-05-11
482:2013-05-11
461:2013-05-11
432:2013-05-11
401:2024-01-24
355:2013-05-11
331:References
285:Variations
254:use cheap
220:access or
134:bankruptcy
94:redundancy
70:dark fibre
46:dark fibre
18:Dark fiber
617:USTelecom
231:, or use
210:bandwidth
126:Bell Labs
660:Category
597:Archived
502:EE Times
395:Archived
309:See also
218:Internet
200:Networks
142:Worldcom
644:27 July
606:1 April
451:Forbes
421:Forbes
271:Google
159:Market
600:(PDF)
593:(PDF)
550:(PDF)
383:(9).
264:SONET
239:, or
646:2010
608:2021
303:CWDM
260:CWDM
241:mesh
233:star
140:and
385:doi
212:or
188:".
172:as
77:lit
64:.
48:or
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379:.
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44:A
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184:"
20:)
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