Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!bu.edu!telecom-request
From: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Local Competition Comes to Illinois Bell
Message-ID: <telecom11.182.8@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 4 Mar 91 23:23:28 GMT
Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu
Reply-To: David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers
Lines: 24
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 182, Message 8 of 10


|        And while we have the topic of Alternative Access open, let's
| take note that MCI bought the transmission portion of Western Union a
| year or so back.  That acquistion included miles and miles of Western
| Union conduits in the streets of more cities than any of us knew
| about.  I knew of a list of 17 major cities where WUTCo had cables in
| the street for years.  But I even heard of digging in the streets of
| Oklahoma City that exposed _wooden_ conduits marked "Western Union"
| just a year or so ago.  

Hmm,

This brings up a VERY interesting scenaro. WU used to have not just
cable, but pneumatic message tube virtually everywhere in many Eastern
US cities. A late friend of mine who worked for WU through both World
Wars talked about the seventeen-odd branch offices that they had in
downtown Cleveland alone - all interconnected by message tube.

Folks, you can stuff an awful lot of fiber bandwidth down just one of
those tubes. Heck, if you did it right, maybe you could get the fiber
pulled in by a carrier tube - no digging needed.

But don't worry, John. Pac Bell is safe. Chances are, California hadn't
been discovered when WU was putting in tubes;-]