It is on its way sooner than most think. It will be installed on the southside first. Yes, Washington Park area larger apartment buildings will be the first to get it. Specifically buildings run by MAC management.

I have no idea what pricing will be like, but the speed will be 1 Gig speed! Which is about 80-100x's faster that average comcast speed.

Politically correct internet access.

When it does get here, also lots of FREE WIFI will be provided by the city in certain areas, yes, mostly on the Southside. Not complaining, just stating where it will be.

Shit man, I could see fiber nodes but terminating fiber into homes?
No thanks. Ever terminated fiber? Shit is FRAGILE. (must be Italian!)

It is on its way sooner than most think. It will be installed on the southside first.

Uncle Jerry strikes again!!

free wifi would be great, but i hate obama so i dont want it. but i will still use it.

There's a crimp tool that terminates fiber very easily and cleanly now....

The fiber backbones and major loops were installed in 1996-2001 in the City already. From Chicago Ave. to the north, Cermak to the South, Michigan Ave./King Drive to the East and Halsted to the West. There are junction boxes and manholes all over the City that are loaded with fiber...Miles and miles of it in the freight tunnels, old trolley tunnels (which are fucking crazy awesome btw), street trenching, and bridge attachments. Just take a look at an Elevated track on Wabash. There is 6" aluminum ducts and junction boxes all over the place.

Put it this way. The Enron's, Qwest, Nextlink's, 21st Century's, Metropolitan, Midwest, and Level3's of the world constructed a fiber redundancy 9x over....that is why they all went bankrupt. Millions upon millions of dollars spent on infrastructure that nobody except Dr. Ken could afford.

So, the "newness" is the building connections, but really it's just that someone bought the dead fiber and plan to light it up....on FIIIIIYAAAAA!

link?

The fiber backbones and major loops were installed in 1996-2001 in the City already. From Chicago Ave. to the north, Cermak to the South, Michigan Ave./King Drive to the East and Halsted to the West. There are junction boxes and manholes all over the City that are loaded with fiber...Miles and miles of it in the freight tunnels, old trolley tunnels (which are fucking crazy awesome btw), street trenching, and bridge attachments. Just take a look at an Elevated track on Wabash. There is 6" aluminum ducts and junction boxes all over the place.

Put it this way. The Enron's, Qwest, Nextlink's, 21st Century's, Metropolitan, Midwest, and Level3's of the world constructed a fiber redundancy 9x over....that is why they all went bankrupt. Millions upon millions of dollars spent on infrastructure that nobody except Dr. Ken could afford.

So, the "newness" is the building connections, but really it's just that someone bought the dead fiber and plan to light it up....on FIIIIIYAAAAA!

hmm.... maybe in 96... but generally the nodes and equipment to run fiber is a lot more costly then the cable installations...

Maybe with a ditch-witch in your backyard, but not down the middle of LaSalle Street.

Uncle Jerry strikes again!!

Maybe with a ditch-witch in your backyard, but not down the middle of LaSalle Street.

http://www.wbez.org/series/dynamic-range/search-chicago%E2%80%99s-abandoned-cable-car-tunnels-107715

The guy who wrote this article found the entrance to the Lasalle tunnel. That manhole lid (now locked...all access was locked post 9/11) opened to a ladder. The ladder descends a good 40' below street level to the "floor" of the trolley tunnel. After the Lasalle tunnel was abandoned, the City installed a 54" water main under the river. It's 50 degrees to the touch...and damn impressive. The neat thing, is that the blue line bisects the old trolley tunnel. There is a ladder to climb over the top of the blue line to get to the other side of the Lasalle tunnel. Really cool stuff.

After the breach in 1992, most of the river crossings were blocked with a poured concrete bulkhead. There are three? crossings left. Franklin to the north, and Madison, and Van Buren to the west. These have bulkhead doors (think submarine). You open one, close it...walk under the river, open the other door, close it. If the door is open for longer than 5 minutes, an alarm at the Engineering office (City Hall basement) would go off.

Here's a pic I took in like 2000ish. This is near Polk and Clark streets. The entrance is a manhole lid at River City.