Jun
10

Allied Fiber Interview

2 Comments

Hunter Newby, CEO of Allied Fiber was kind enough to schedule a call with me today to discuss their new nationwide fiber ring and how it can serve small local contractors in the fiber industry.

Most notable about the conversation was how respectful Newby was of ‘local knowledge’ and it’s necessity in completing work of such a massive scale as their proposed 11,548 mile fiber ring. This mentality bodes well for the smaller contractors who usually are the ones in the trenches and don’t always have access to the prime contracts.

As was mentioned in the original release, Adesta, Michaels, and Hinkels & McCoy are the prime contractors for the first leg. Those would be good companies to get on their approved subcontractor lists.

Additionally, Newby pointed out that there will be a demand for work beyond the initial build. This work will be from the Allied ROW to the customer’s premiss’s. Newby acknowledged a need for a comprehensive resource for these customers to find local contractors with the ability to facilitate interconnection to the Allied ring. He also agreed that FiberToTheWhatever.com is a good match for that resource.

So make sure you are registered with FiberToTheWhatever.com vendor directory and participate in the forum. I know that the forum is new and pretty empty, so start by introducing yourself and it will pick up over time.

Related posts:

  1. Allied Fiber Begins Building National Dark Fiber Ring – 11,548 miles of dark fiber goodness
  2. Allied Fiber begins construction of U.S. nationwide dark fiber system
  3. Broadband Forum introduces new next gen access initiatives
  4. Changes to FiberToTheWhatever.com
  5. Opelika, Alabama Voting On Fiber Network – So Charter tries to argue fiber is less reliable…

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in FTTw Commentary
2 Comments Posted by Don

2 Responses to "Allied Fiber Interview"

  • dnhunt says:
    June 11, 2010 at 6:58 am

    I agree that local knowledge is key, especially for the OSP engineering and permitting of the project. Most highway permits that were done prior to the CLEC boom years were a few pages at most. Some of the CLECs hired firms that were not familiar with local permitting requirements and submitted hundreds of page for their permits. This has created more work for the permitting agencies and provided more information that was subject to conflicting information when construction was done. Permitting agencies are familiar with local engineering companies and trust their ability to oversee teh construction properly. A lower price for engineering may result in higher costs for construction.

    david

  • Don says:
    June 11, 2010 at 11:05 am

    That ties into why I started this site in the first place.
    I saw that the big national groups, Atlantic, Adesta, etc. were getting the prime contracts and without local knowledge, they would sometimes bring out of state subs in as well.
    Fiber is a specialized field and at this point, there needs to be a resource for the smaller contractors with the specific local knowledge of permitting, safety, local nuances, and such, can get part of the big pie.
    I am excited to be able to bring another piece of that together.

Leave a Comment