Fiber Optic Opportunities

[bjp_ne_elec]

I was talking to a college student today, and he was telling me that a guest speaker was invited in to the class by the professor and was talking about how opportunities would be popping up for ECs who knew how to splice fiber optic cable. Does anyone have any comments as to whether they agree that opportunities are out there, and also comment if you are and EC and see opportunities in this tyep of work.

Thanks

 

[wireguru]

i think the biggest growth period there took place in the early to mid 2000s, but there still is and always be a market for it. Expensive to get into....price a fusion splicer lately?

 

[macmikeman]

Here is a sad tale for you. I sold my fusion splicer, my otdr, and microscopes etc, in around 1993 just before local area networks and fiber optic backbones,and the internet started booming. At least I sold it to a good friend who would end up making better use of it all.

 

[dereckbc]

i think the biggest growth period there took place in the early to mid 2000s, but there still is and always be a market for it. Expensive to get into....price a fusion splicer lately?

This is true, I was part of it in Worldcom. There is still a lot of dark fiber in the ground.

However Fios had some promise, but if you have watched the news lately you may have heard Verizon is going to lay-off another 13,000 employees mostly related to the FIOS project. It is not selling too good and they have a lot of Engineers, Project Managers, etc sitting around not doing anything because all the FIOS projects have been cut.

But there is something on th ehorizon and going on right now, just starting slow and again sales are not real great, but should pick up when the economy picks up. What I am talking about is the new 4G standard in the cellular industry. Right now you hear all the hoop law of ATT claiming their 3G network is faster than Verizon, not true, but 3G is going away soon to be replaced by 4G. Yes the cell phone you now have will be an 8-track tape player in a few short years.

Anyway to go 4G will require every cell tower in a given market to have full 1000/100 gbs Ethernet. The current copper T1 service is not capable of delivering 1000/100 Ethernet. Only way to do it is either Microwave Radio or Fiber optic cable. Microwave radio is limited because there are only so many frequencies available, and in urban areas (cities) the frequency congestion would make it impossible due to co-channel interference. So microwave will be used in rural areas where congestion is not a problem and fiber cost too much to run.

So what has already started is th efiber optic rings build outs in the cities in select markets. Verizon I know for sure has started in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, New York, Boston and a few other Class A markets. It is going in in phases over the next 4 years.

But warning here. Money is tight and the projects have slowed down. Lastly it will be a BUBBLE market meaning it has a short life span of maybe 5 to 7 years. When it is built out, it is over with. So if you are going to get on the train, get on now, ride it for what it is worth, but get off the train before it hits the end of the line. If you play your cards right and can get a contract with ATT, Verizon, or SPRINT you can make enough money in 4 to 5 years to retire on. Well the owner of the EC company can.

 

[wireguru]

from what I heard (from a contractor who was doing fios work and quit) FIOS wasnt even worth doing, as they were paying piecework at insanely low rates.