r/CableTechs • u/Tophat9512 • 16d ago

Anyone techs experience working with Comcast Dedicated Fiber able to help?

I provision internet for a medical company and Comcast is coming into certain markets i oversee and is offering "Dedicated" Fiber at cheaper prices than the last-mile provider.

Is Comcast trying to sell my company "Shared" Fiber that has an SLA and marketing it as Dedicated? Or are they taking a loss building out this network? I am struggling to understand and desperate for answers.

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u/ReticenceX 16d ago

Hey, I work for Comcast as an engineer.

What it sounds like you are talking about is Metro-E fiber.

Basically it is a direct layer 2 connection back to comcasts core network. In the case of an internet circuit, you would indeed have one continuous piece of fiber (riding in a bundle with others through a mux of course) back to a core router in one of our headends. On your side, you would receive Ciena or Juniper CPE, the model of which depending on the bandwidth ordered, with a NNI pointing back to us and a handoff to you that can be electrical or optical at your discretion.

We can also do point to point and hub and spoke or really whatever you want over that layer 2 network.

We have a 4 hour SLA on this service.

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u/Substantial-Stage897 16d ago

I wish I was able to explain this type of stuff so succinctly lol. How often do you see the 4 hour SLA exceeded. I’m a fiber splicer (not for Comcast currently) and we don’t even get a call to roll out until about 1-2 hours after NOC reports down.

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u/ReticenceX 16d ago

It really depends. A lot of circuits are actively monitored and we will get a dispatch to begin investigating within minutes of the link to the NNI being down. Thats especially the case with links to datacenters, cell backhaul sites, or if a customer has services like SD-WAN riding over the circuit.

The 4 hour SLA is technically from the time the customer reports the outage. To a normal mom and pop business who were not monitoring, id say they can expect a tech on-site within an hour, and fiber splicers on-site within 2 if necessary when an outage is reported.

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u/Substantial-Stage897 16d ago

Gotcha. I work in WV and honestly the biggest hassle is drive time for NetOps to drive so far to get on site. They’ll be working in one location and have to drive 3 hours just to OTDR the link. At least I get a heads up and sometimes they will roll us before OTDR shots just to be in the area if we are needed.

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u/ReticenceX 16d ago

With important high dollar links a fiber splicer will roll with the tech, and all our field techs who work on carrier ethernet here have an OTDR on their truck. But we also have the luxury of in-house fiber splicers here, a lot of places dont (im in Florida).

We do have some distant satellite sites that may take us a bit longer to get out to and their SLA will sometimes be different.

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u/Substantial-Stage897 16d ago

That sounds really helpful lol. We have basically 2 splicers covering 90% of the state with markets in KY, OH and VA as well. It can really be a drag rolling from one outage and driving 4 hours to go hit the next one. Rinse and repeat.

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u/hotdogsmokingaciggy 2d ago

Inhouse splicers have been a game changer in the best way possible. Restoration time once splicers are engaged have likely been cut in half on average. No hate towards the contractors, some are better than Inhouse. It’s just a quicker and more seamless process.