Enabling digital equity and closing the digital divide has become extremely important and especially exacerbated from the COVID-19 pandemic. Fiber is a key piece of infrastructure for data connectivity around the world due to the increased use of telehealth, remote work, online schooling, and an increased demand for connecting more devices that create efficient and safe smart communities. As technology evolves and more devices are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), a higher bandwidth, lower latency, and more reliable connection are needed beyond wireless solutions, twisted pair, and coaxial lines in use throughout society today.
Fiber cabling is the preferred medium for data connectivity and has been dubbed “future-proof” by industry experts because of its high data capacity, low-latency, and ability to service a multitude of end devices as once. While fiber cables generally exist in and between major cities, approximately only 43% of the US population has fiber installed to their home , indicating a massive gap in the last-mile market. Installing last-mile and middle-mile optical fiber using conventional methods is inefficient, time consuming, dangerous to the worker and environment, and expensive. Obtaining permits and approvals using these methods regularly takes months to achieve because of design conflicts with existing rights-of-ways and other utilities, soil study requirements, rock, and other environmental influences, like high-water tables. While utility poles are not a preferred option, even though they can be efficient when they are available because one must obtain permission to use the poles, pay “make-ready” fees, and pay additional ongoing fees for each attachment point on the pole. Other conventional methods like Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) aka boring, open trenching, and microtrenching makes optical fiber difficult to install. These techniques are extremely slow, disruptive to daily operations, create a high-risk for damaging existing utilities, and are very expensive.