Why, create a subsidiary to bring wireless internet to the masses. At least those close enough to the right of way.
http://omaharotarynight.org/Speakers/c28647f5-84fa-4e95-b9d1-111ba8db1deb
http://www.breezeinternet.com/
I received a letter announcing this new service yesterday. It said UP employees get a discount.
Jeff
Shades of SPRINT...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Innovation! Hope this works out well and defrays some of the PTC cost.
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Good GRIEF, Larry ! Ya, beat me to it!
[ So some of these younger whipper snappers, will understand...]
Southern
Pacific
Railroad
Internal
Telecommunications
The UP tracks are just down the street from me, in a rural setting. Matter of fact, I hear the horn of a UP train right now. The Breeze website said service is not available to me. Hmmm.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Rural Colorado mountain counties and communities are fighting placement of small cell to fiber towers in western and south central parts of the state. Some are arguing asthetics, but many others are upset they are not getting royalties for the placement of cell towers and f-o-c on railroad R/W (including 65 miles of fee owned R/W surrounding maybe 3+ miles of FGROW and conditional R/W deed corridor) ... the dimestore lawyers are really stirring it up with some of the more gullible locals. The shortlines (2), generally win the cases, but lawyer fees crimp operating budgets that could be better spent on other things.
Railroads and Communcations are no strangers. The Pennsy had the Trainphone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainphone. Amtrak had Trainphones on some of there routes in the 1980s before cell phone came in vouge
mudchicken the dimestore lawyers are really stirring it up with some of the more gullible locals. The shortlines (2), generally win the cases, but lawyer fees crimp operating budgets that could be better spent on other things.
the dimestore lawyers are really stirring it up with some of the more gullible locals. The shortlines (2), generally win the cases, but lawyer fees crimp operating budgets that could be better spent on other things.
Such displays of unvarnished contempt for other professionals doesn't really belong in a discussion. Ever wonder what some of them think of you?
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
schlimm mudchicken the dimestore lawyers are really stirring it up with some of the more gullible locals. The shortlines (2), generally win the cases, but lawyer fees crimp operating budgets that could be better spent on other things. Such displays of unvarnished contempt for other professionals doesn't really belong in a discussion. Ever wonder what some of them think of you?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Excerpt from transcript of NPR program All Things Considered, Oct. 15, 2012
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162963607/sprint-born-from-railroad-telephone-businesses
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: We're going to linger for a minute more on Sprint and its remarkable family tree. The company has roots on one side in the Brown Telephone Company of Abilene, Kansas, founded in 1899, and, on the other, a railroad, the Southern Pacific. In fact, the name Sprint is an acronym. When it was first coined, the SPR stood for Southern Pacific Railroad. The Southern Pacific traces its roots back to the 1860s. It would later operate thousands of miles of track and the telegraph wire along those tracks. Here's former Southern Pacific communications control wire chief Brijet Neff.
BRIJET NEFF: In 1972, a request came in from the president of the railroad to seek out a way to use our already existing communications lines for long-distance dialing.
BLOCK: Well, this was new territory for the railroad. By the mid-1970s, Neff says Southern Pacific was selling time on its extensive microwave communications system to private customers. The move put a dent in AT&T's longstanding long-distance monopoly.
NEFF: They decided to hold a contest after we were able to prove that everything worked, and the winning title was Sprint, which stood for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.
BLOCK: Telephony according to Brijet Neff gave way to telecommunications, and the name Sprint was born.
BaltACD schlimm mudchicken the dimestore lawyers are really stirring it up with some of the more gullible locals. The shortlines (2), generally win the cases, but lawyer fees crimp operating budgets that could be better spent on other things. Such displays of unvarnished contempt for other professionals doesn't really belong in a discussion. Ever wonder what some of them think of you? Remember - when it comes to law suits there are really only two winner$ - lawyer$ for the plaintiff and lawyer$ for the defense.
Cute but no cigar!
About 7 years back we had a pretty interesting, and wide ranging discussion about "RAILROAD ROW'S BEING USED FOR BURRIED CABLES"
Linked @ http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/175779.aspx?page=1
{That Thread covered a lot of ground on the subject and also included discussions of 'problems' with original land and grant titles of original owning railroads.}
Since this current Thread has brought about Lawyers and how those "professionals" are getting into the discussion. The linked Thread has some pretty suscinct and germain comments.
"...I'll try to shed a little more light on the legal ramifications of using Railroad Rights of Way for things other than actual railroad usage (i.e., laying fiber optic cables) Since I live in Georgia, I had the privilege watching of the Atlanta-Macon installation. Qwest/NS T-Cubed subsidiary teamed up around 2001 to lay this cable from Atlanta to Jacksonville via the old secondary CofG mainline to Macon and the former GS&F to Jacksonville. I was told that the initial installation cost was at least $36 million. This didn't include the annual lease of the right of way by Qwest. Unfortunately, neither company bothered to look at whether doing any of this was actually legal! (with full time legal departments at both companies, you'd think someone would have caught on!)
Much of today's railroad mainlines were built via government issued easements from the original property owners. A lot of these easements stipulated that the right of way could be used ONLY for railroad transportation and nothing else. It also couldn't be subleased to another entity for non-railroad usage. Should the railroad be abandoned, the right of way reverts back to the current property owner unless the government takes it via eminent domain. (i.e., bike trails) Fiber optic cable does not fall under this category. One of the landowners here in Georgia had an aptitude for the law, and figured this out. A multi-million dollar, class action lawsuit soon followed claiming the railroad broke the freight/passenger transport only clause. Each and every property owner with ROW frontage was awarded money based on how much feet/acreage they had adjacent to the ROW. I never did hear the final amount of the lawsuit, but I'm sure it was in the millions! And the VERY costly cable they laid? To my knowledge, it has never been used. If anyone has more (or better) info on this, I'm all ears! It was both fascinating and hilarious to watch this all play out. I know at least two people who actually received money from this lawsuit, and both got a kick out getting paid money for someone else's stupidity!"...
And this partial quote from Paul D.North on the subject:"...[from the above linked Thread] "...
Fiber-optic lines are unfortunately routinely severed from causes other than derailments, and in those circumstances do not rise to the level of affecting national security. An IT guy I know once said "The backhoe is the natural enemy of the Internet", and a few years ago a morning spent with a then-AT&T "Long Lines" locating technician yielded some interesting and bizarre stories about that occurs. So some disruptions ought to be tolerable - it's a network, after all, and there ought to be alternate routes available.
To compel a relocation of an FOL at no expense - or on the other side, to obtain reimbursement for same - is largely a matter of bargaining power and ability between the railroad and the FOL owner. There is no compelling natural law that prohibits the railroad from requiring the FOL to be relocated when and where the railroad needs that done - although that might well affect the amount of the payment for the lease or easement. Here in Pennsylvania that's a fundamental, well-understood, and non-waivable condition to installing a utility line of any kind (except CATV) in a public street or road - whether state or local - and it is exercised frequently in connection with road widenings and intersection improvements, which are the highway equivalents to adding tracks and upgrading interlockings. And you know, I don't see that this Commonwealth or its residents are notably underserved or overcharged by said utilities because of that - it's a cost of doing business, and is part of the bargain for the otherwise nominal cost - permit fees, etc. - of using the public R-O-W..."
Here is another linked Thread that may also be of similar interest.
Linked @ http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/215753.aspx
"Railroad ROWs used to bury Telecommunications cables and claims by adjacent land owners?"
The ownership of RR ROW has many - many answers and cannot be determined by discussuion here. But what can be discussed is what rights RR's have in the use of their ROW. Some will remember the Western Union pole line along ROW's which also had attached to the crossarms the RR's own communication line; these existed until somewhat recently. Thus the pole lines were necessary for RR purposes and were never a contention.
By the same reasoning fiberoptic lines buried along the ROW could be used by the RR for its own communications in addition to the 'FOL' owners interests. The smart RR's negotiated with that option even tho they may not immediately need that service; and then may elect to get RR service on the line at a later time.
There are and have been many occupancies of RR ROW which the bystander may assume are private but in some way provide for RR use, or are of a short term limit should the RR need the land for its own operations.
I was involved in designing and installing about 600 miles of fiber optic communications in Illinois. The system was designed with a ring architecture which provides reliable service in the event of the severence of any link. Signals are sent both directions around the loop and the receiving termination switches in nanoseconds to the alternate direction receiver in the event the normal direction is interrupted. Some cable is buried, some on poles, some in duct and some in power line static wire, It has had fiber cuts but no loss of service.
Also SPRINT installed a low count fiber cable along the C&NW and as their business grew, was able to change out the electronics to provide for the communications traffic growth using higher bandwith. Just as your computer has more speed and memory, so did fiber communications equipment grow in capacity.
So Power Lines would be a problem on the right of way unless they were used for eletrification?
I was involved in a campus-level installation of a data network. Fortunately, a six- or twelve- pair fiber was run to every building involved, making it much easier to add new networks and other technologies later.
So Power Lines would be a problem unless they were used for electrification.
There is no simple answer as there are so many RR title documents, laws and court decided applications. These issues cannot be decided with discussion on this site.
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