This nationwide outage lasted for nearly 20 hours. Many speculated that the Syrian regime pulled the plug, instead of a fiber optic issue because the entire country was affected. It is impossible to confirm from outside of Syria what caused the outage.

Since the Syrian uprising began, the regime has stopped Internet service multiple times in select areas connected to rebel fighters. Back in November, a two-day outage coincided with military operations near the capital city, Damascus. Internet access, specifically social media use, has played an integral role in the year-and-a-half conflict between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents. Dan Hubbard, CTO of Umbrella Security Labs and OpenDNS, tells Bloomberg’s Brian Womack that many companies that depended on the .sy server domain have switched their services since the November outage.

Three submarine cables provide Syria’s Internet service, which experts say dispels the claim that a fiber optic cable was to blame for the outage. “The failure of a single optical cable is unlikely to cause a complete Internet outage for the country,” said David Belson, a product line director at content delivery network, Akamai.

There are over 200 telecommunication cables laid on the seabed throughout the world. Modern submarine fiber optic cables carry digital data traffic, including Internet, telephone and private traffic, across stretches of ocean. These submarine cables serve as the foundation for the world’s communication and economy.

GeoTel Communications specializes in researching and mapping telecommunications infrastructure data in GIS to produce a wide range of telecom data products, including telecom maps. GeoTel’s Submarine Cable and Landings dataset reveals specific information about the cable, including the cable’s name, landing stations, length, owners, ready for service date and contact information. If you’re interested in, fiber maps, fiber network maps, or any of our telecom GIS data sets, visit our website at www.geo-tel.com or call at 800-277-2172.

The problem during this telecom boom-and-bust was the disconnect between the network, the software, and the hardware. In order for a technology like this to be adopted in a massive way (like was predicted), all three of these components need to be in alignment. In this case, the fiber was impressive, but there was no software yet that demanded it, and therefore no hardware.

In an article published in Fierce Telecom, Vince Jordan, a consultant to the city of Longmont, Colorado said, “Look at a company like Adelphia, which spent I don’t know how many hundreds of millions of dollars putting a fiber network in and a good chunk of that stuff is just sitting abandoned in Denver and other major metropolitan areas.”

Today, the federal government continues to fund the creation of new broadband infrastructure, but for cities with a less hefty budget, they may find the solution to their high-speed connectivity demands a little closer to home than they imagined. In fact, there may be unused fiber right underneath their feet.

Finding and repurposing unused or under-used fiber of the 1990s-2000s can save cities a lot of money in initial installation costs. But, the question lies – how would an organization or local government find fiber if there is any in their area? The answer – fiber network maps, fiber lit buildings, and other fiber data sets can be used by local government officials to analyze the fiber infrastructure in their area so that they can decide how best to utilize it moving forward in order to enhance their city’s high-speed Internet access and meet the growing connectivity demands.

GeoTel Communications is America’s leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure data in a GIS and web-based solutions. If you are interested in obtaining fiber maps, fiber network maps, or other fiber GIS products, contact GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172.

Unlike in Kansas City and Austin, where Google will build a fiber optic network from the ground up, Google will utilize Provo’s existing municipal network for the project. However, the construction company that initially installed the fiber optic cables underground in Provo did not keep accurate records of where they buried them, leaving the city unsure of the exact location of their fiber infrastructure. Also, due to overwhelming financial costs a few years back, Provo sold its fiber network to Broadweave in 2008, and did not acquire the network back until 2011. As a result, fiber may have been relocated during this time without the city’s knowledge or approval.

Therefore, as a requirement of Google, Provo must pay $500,000 to a civil engineering firm to find fiber and determine exactly where all the fiber optic cables are buried. Hence, Provo will spend the money now to create a fiber map of their city’s current infrastructure. In addition to the cost of creating a fiber map, Provo will also need to pay roughly $722,000 for equipment in order to maintain their existing municipal network for the government operations, such as traffic lights and police services, that need to use the network on a continual basis.

GeoTel Communications is America’s leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure data in a GIS and web-based solutions. If you are interested in obtaining fiber maps, fiber network maps, or other fiber GIS products for your city or metro area, contact GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172.

If you’re renting or buying new office space, finding a lit building is the most cost-effective way to get fast and reliable connectivity because the fiber optic network is already present. This eliminates the need to invest in setting up a fiber network with your desired carrier. As a result, many businesses are moving into fiber lit buildings to utilize high-speed connections offered by various providers to keep their business running efficiently.

With so many carriers serving commercial buildings, it’s hard to know which buildings contain fiber and which ones do not. And, it’s even harder to tell which carriers service which lit buildings. New businesses setting up operations, as well as existing businesses, can use a fiber lit buildings data set to locate buildings with fiber connections and to determine which carriers provide service to those buildings.

If your business has just moved into a lit building and you are looking to get the most connectivity for your buck, knowing the building’s providers and the services they offer can give you leverage when negotiating Internet, phone, and TV services. Your goal should be to get the best service and SLA for the money.

GeoTel’s fiber lit buildings product is a great tool to help you choose the next location for your office building or facility that requires high-speed connectivity. Our fiber lit buildings data set can help you analyze the merits of one building site over another by showing which carriers have a fiber presence or have optical switches connected to a fiber loop inside a building. Call GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172 for a customized quote for our fiber lit buildings data set.

Utah, home to hundreds of hi-tech companies and startups, ranks second highest in patent growth and consistently ranks in Forbes’ top places to live and do business in the United States. But, these aren’t the only things that make this city attractive to Google. In 2004, Provo made an investment to increase the city’s connectivity for both residents and businesses. That year, Provo’s existing fiber optic network, known as “iProvo”, was built, costing the city $39 million. Now, to acquire Provo’s existing fiber optic network, Google will pay much less than $39 million. In fact, they will pay only $1 to the Provo City Council in return for its high speed Internet and TV service.

So, why did the Provo City Council give its $39 million fiber network to Google for just $1? Well, this isn’t the average sale. Google will not only take over Provo’s fiber network and make improvements to it, but also they have agreed to take over the city’s construction loans and some of the residents’ costs. Google will offer its free 5 Mbps Internet service to residents in Provo for a one-time $30 activation fee and no recurring monthly charge (for at least seven years). “We [will] also provide free Gigabit Internet service to 25 local public institutions like schools, hospitals and libraries,” said Kevin Lo, General Manager of Google Fiber, in his recent blog post.

Fiber optic network maps, fiber lit buildings, and other fiber data sets can be used by places such as Provo to help city engineers and local government officials to analyze their existing fiber infrastructure as they look towards making improvements to increase their city’s connectivity. If you are interested in obtaining fiber maps, fiber network maps, or other fiber GIS products, contact GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172.

The city determined that before they could utilize their network effectively and make expansions to it, a study was needed to map out the fiber network and all existing infrastructure. This way, they could identify and update their current data pertaining to configurations, connection points, splicing, and incorporated devices.

“We have all of the responsibility to take care of all of the fiber for the benefit of everybody that’s using it,” said City Manager Jeff Wells. “This study was part of trying to figure out what are we going to do in the future with it.”

The Fort Morgan City Council recently approved spending up to $40,000 on this study of the city’s fiber optic network infrastructure. The city has decided to employ Magellan Advisors’ team in Denver, a company that specializes in broadband and telecommunications planning, for their bid of $32,500. The rest of the budget for the study ($7,500) will be used to resolve any issues from the study and to upgrade services when possible.

At GeoTel Communications, our fiber optic network maps integrate telecommunications infrastructure data with geospatial technologies so that cities like Fort Morgan can analyze fiber infrastructure in a spatial, map-like environment. If you are interested in obtaining telecom GIS data sets for a particular city or metro area, contact GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172.

Google says that they will start connecting homes in Austin to their fiber network by the middle of next year, offering similar products to those offered in Kansas City: Gigabit Internet or Gigabit Internet plus Google Fiber TV service with almost 200 HD TV channels. By offering faster Internet access to more cities across the United States, Google is, in essence, increasing the amount of Web content that people can access. Thus, in addition to increasing connectivity for residents and businesses, Google is in turn growing its bottom line.

In Google Fiber’s blog post announcing their plans for Austin, Milo Medin (Vice President of Google Fiber) shared his thoughts about the future of the Internet saying, “We believe the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, and we hope this new Google Fiber city will inspire communities across America to think about what ultrafast connectivity could mean for them.” If you’re a city official, what improvements could you make to your city’s infrastructure to improve its connectivity? How do you think your city could benefit from Google Fiber?

Fiber network maps and other fiber maps can be used to help local governments, city officials, and urban planners find new ways to increase their city’s connectivity by analyzing existing fiber infrastructure. If you are interested in obtaining fiber maps, fiber network maps, or other fiber GIS products, contact GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172.

While much of the world was worrying about Fukushima, there was another, less obvious problem under the ocean – the submarine cables lying along the ocean floor, which carried voice and Internet communications to and from Japan, had been harshly damaged by the earthquake. Palmer-Felgate, a Verizon project manager who directs submarine-cable repairs all over the world, realized this adverse effect of the earthquake. He reported, “The Japan earthquake caused a whole series of underwater landslides. At least seven of our cables were buried over by several kilometers of sediment.”

After Fukushima, Palmer-Felgate helped the cable companies and engineers to find the location of the cable breaks by transmitting a pulse from a landing station on the coast and measuring the distance to the fault. Palmer-Felgate’s team directed remotely operated underwater vehicles to find the severed pieces, which they then lifted and rejoined the cables. It ended up taking several weeks to fully restore the telecommunications infrastructure and get Japan back to full connectivity.

Today, there are over 200 telecommunications cables buried underneath the ocean worldwide, creating the backbone of our international economy. GeoTel Communications specializes in mapping telecommunications infrastructure with GIS data to produce telecom maps. In fact, GeoTel’s maps of the Internet were featured at the Archive Centre Mundaneum in Belgium. If you’re interested in telecom maps, fiber maps, fiber network maps, or any of our telecom GIS data sets, give us a call at 800-277-2172!

This fiber optic cable installation project was initiated because AT&T lost underwater cable when the Bridge of Lions was renovated a few years back. The Bridge of Lions is a historically well-known bridge in St. Augustine that runs over the Matanzas River (Intracoastal Waterway), connecting downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. AT&T has released that part of the new fiber optic cable running underneath the river will be used to connect offices downtown and at St. Augustine Beach, and the rest of the cable will be used for Anastasia Island.

“The new cable is needed because it will carry phone traffic between our Central Offices, which are where all calls are processed, as well as provide support for any increases in phone traffic,” according to Kelly Layne Starling, AT&T public relations manager.

At GeoTel Communications, our fiber optic network maps integrate telecom infrastructure data with geospatial technologies so that cities like St. Augustine, as well as telecom providers like AT&T, can analyze fiber assets in a spatial, map-like environment and make decisions about placing new fiber infrastructure. If you are interested in obtaining telecom GIS data sets for a particular city or metro area, contact GeoTel Communications at 800-277-2172.

Previously, the city’s departments, as well as regional and federal partners analyzed the city’s existing infrastructure and determined that its prevention, protection, and response capabilities were not up to par. Therefore, the city is installing security cameras along the shoreline as part of a wireless Mesh Network composed of wireless access points and fiber optic cables. The Mesh Network’s wireless access points and fiber optic cables will provide first responders such as the Seattle Police Department, the Fire Department, and the Coast Guard with access to the network during emergency calls.

Local officials say that the surveillance cameras should be installed by the end of the month, but they are still working out policies regarding the cameras’ usage. Telecom GIS products like fiber optic network maps can help local governments and first responders in effectively and efficiently dealing with unexpected situations that may arise, such as the ones Seattle is preparing for.

At GeoTel Communications, our fiber optic network maps integrate telecom infrastructure data with geospatial technologies so that cities and local governments can analyze fiber network assets in a spatial, map-like environment and make informed decisions quickly. Give us a call today at 1-800-277-2172 to learn more about our telecom data products!