Briones Broadband Wagon
Compared to the surrounding polycentric urbanised region, Briones is a broadband desert. We have virtually no wired broadband, and our internet speeds don’t go past 50 megabits per second down. New installations in the surrounding conurbation are often 1000 Mbps (1 gigabit), and carried on fiber. Broadband today is where electricity was a century ago when electricity was commonplace in cities but largely unavailable in farms, ranches, and other rural places. Rural broadband is the fruit of free-market demand as exemplified by St. Francis, Kansas where community effort paid off. Even the remote Aleutian Islands will soon have gigabit internet. And needless to say, the lack of broadband puts downward pressure on real estate prices. Many Brioneans are happy with to the speed provided by WISP even though it compares to fiber as a bicycle compares to air travel.
What to Do? Join the Briones Broadband Wagon.
Lore within AT&T has it that fiber-to-the-node was extended to the then-new node at Hampton Road because an AT&T executive lived in Briones.
These are AT&T’s 2007-vintage electronics enclosures just south of Hampton Road which are fed, or “backhauled” from their central office in Martinez via fiber optic cables. Connection from this node to customer premises is via old-fashioned copper wires. These remote nodes were the basis of AT&T’s upgraded DSL service called IPBB, a short-lived half measure which they are now phasing out by not accepting new customers. (Even older DSL was copper all the way from central office to the customer premises.) A modest extension of the aerial fiber could deliver FTTP, fiber to the premises, and the prospect of gigabit Ethernet.
Close but no cigar.
This is aerial conduit (the one with blue pin stripes) carrying fiber optic cables. Another mile of it would provide gigabit internet service.
The only way AT&T will even consider extending fiber is for their “dedicated” Internet service which starts at $500 per month for 10 Mbps or $3,000/mo for 1 Gbps. Interestingly, a resident of Dillon Beach, CA, is using AT&T dedicated fiber to backhaul his WISP. Such a system could work in Briones, but it has significant vulnerabilities including: 1. It’s run by one person with no apparent backup. 2. It depends on the viability of his single, non-hardened head end in a residential garage.
Here is Comcast’s sloppy mess that they’ve left there for years, even after their crew did at least one survey. All those irregular loops are supposed be laid straight and lashed to the messenger wire. A 180º change in direction is supposed to use a snowshoe, as AT&T has done here. Not only that, the sloppy cable goes down the pole bare, without an aerial-underground down-lead cover provided for their other cable.
Comcast: Who cares?
A decades-old fiber optic line runs west of the cross roads on Alhambra Valley Road. It apparently still functions judging from Comcast’s having it marked in advance of the washout repair at the eucalyptus trees.
“Buried.” Aptly put.
This photo: Marking of buried Comcast cable on Alhambra Valley Road west of Bear Creek Road. Contra Costa County grants Comcast the right-of-way to pass through the heart of Briones, yet doesn’t require them to install a few short miles of aerial plant that would provide gigabit broadband to Briones. Comcast doesn’t even offer service directly from this cable to premises on Alhambra Valley Road.
So close, yet so far.
Three conduits each from both directions depart the shoulder of the road and lead to an unsecured vault containing a surplus length of cable. Surplus cable may be stored instead of cut to avoid the need for a splice. The unused conduit is typically installed for future expansion since the marginal cost is low at the time of installation.
The surface marking letters read “CATV” meaning cable television and “F/O” meaning fiberoptic.
Why is Comcast allowed to use the road when they don’t serve the property owners?
East of Bear Creek Road on Alhambra Valley Road, Comcast transitions to aerial. The upper Comcast cable, with the orange sleeve, is fiber optic. In spite of the cables being there, Comcast doesn’t offer service to Briones, even along Alhambra Valley Road. One or both cables are likely “middle mile,” or “backhaul” links within their system that don’t supply end users. The lower Comcast cable is lashed sloppily; compare its lashing to AT&T’s below it.
Comcast tromps through Briones on Alhambra Valley Road with high-capacity backhaul lines, but can’t be bothered to offer service to end users down Bear Creek Road and up Pereira Road.
What’s this? The red outline shows the Briones boundary. The yellow shows the RDOF eligible areas. RDOF is the a federally-funded subsidy called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, with these areas showing Phase I Auction 904 published on 10/08/2020. The RDOF maps are known to have lots of local inaccuracies which include all of the non-yellow portions of Briones. Without the map errors, all of Briones is eligible. The nearest serviced addresses are to the east of the magenta line (not to be confused with the Maginot Line:), which is the boundary of the City of Martinez and sprawl.
A small Vermeer horizontal directional drill installs new 2”, 13.5 SDR polyethylene conduit which will house Comcast’s fiberoptic cable. This underground fiber backhaul line blustering through our scenic enclave is so important to them that they’re moving it to conform with the new alignment of Alhambra Valley Road at the washout.
