Editor's Log

As an industry, we talk a lot these days about the importance and value of damage prevention. Safety is included in the conversation. Accidental deaths in the construction industry, particularly the underground segment, have fallen sharply over the past decade.

It was a desperate cry for help, presented in powerful and disturbing comments from municipal respondents to the recently completed 16th Annual Sewer & Water Infrastructure Survey conducted by Underground Construction.

As I write this column, it has been about two weeks since the presidential election. In conversations with many industry people, the topic is always what lies ahead for the next four years and can we still transition into a reasonably healthy business environment?

It wasn’t that long ago that those involved in the fiber communications realm were considered dreamers. Shortly after the fiber back-bone build-out bust of 2000-2001, fiber trunk lines were everywhere but rarely utilized. The U.S. was awash in dark fiber systems, waiting for not just business, but individuals as well, to embrace fiber to the premises – at a high cost. Most consider that cost to connect fiber to homes and business as just too high and the return too low to make a working business model. It would take decades for fiber to become in vogue enough to justify lighting up the dark fiber, justify build-out costs and truly provide fiber to the premise.