Imagine if cable companies had put in micro-ducts years ago when they installed coaxial cable. Instead of waiting for sometimes months or years for permits and extensive engineering, cable providers would be able to react to opportunities and competitive threats by installing fiber deeper into their networks via already installed ducts. The folks at Deep Fiber Solutions realized that if they could figure out a cost-effective way to remove a coax core, then the very trunk, feeder and distribution coaxial cables could be reconfigured as fiber ducts, saving operators both time and money.

Deep Fiber Solutions came out of stealth mode at SCTE 2014. In the above interview, Deep Fiber Solution’s Executive Vice President of Technology and Business Development, Mark Davis, describes the process for how they turn an ordinary coaxial cable into a fiber duct. He points out that the technique of using a combination of what amounts to environmentally friendly, dish soap, combined with air pressure is much more reliable than previous attempts that used heat to melt the center conductor.

Fundamentally, Deep Fiber Solutions is a construction service company with crews and equipment that can convert an existing cable span into a fiber span in the matter of a day. Because the coaxial cable is already installed, permitting, engineering or make-ready is not required, like it would be for traditional approaches of overlashing fiber. There are many use-cases, such as crossing railroads, Interstate highways, high-rises or any place where right-of-ways are difficult to obtain or construction is virtually impossible.

Deep Fiber Solutions is already looking at the next step, which is fiber down the existing coaxial cable drop. With this technique, then Fiber to the Home could become a much more cost-effective answer to more bandwidth in some brownfield MSO operations. And even though they are a relatively new company, they have the credibility of an experienced management team and board, which includes Cable TV Hall of Fame member, Alex Best