3. Overview of the Project
MFNS seeks Commission approval to install conduit and related facilities to create fiber optic networks to serve the California metropolitan areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin.6 The Project consists of (1) the installation by MFNS of new conduit for fiber optic cable, (2) the repair or replacement of existing conduit through which MFNS will pull fiber optic cable, and (3) the construction of ancillary facilities such as Point of Presence (POP) sites, which MFNS will construct at locations along the cable routes.7
The San Francisco Bay Area network will serve six Bay Area counties8; the Los Angeles Basin network will serve two counties.9 The networks will connect major office buildings, industrial parks and business centers and their occupants to implement the latest applications available in the evolving data communications and Internet markets. MFNS currently has 10 customers, and anticipates having 50 customers in its fifth year of operation.
The Project will involve new underground installation of approximately 113 miles of conduit for fiber optic cable in the San Francisco Bay Area and approximately 193 miles in the Los Angeles Basin. MFNS will also pull cable through approximately 200 miles of Pacific Bell conduit for the San Francisco Bay Area network; and approximately 38 miles of Pacific Bell/GTE conduit, and 161 miles of Level 3 conduit, for the Los Angeles Basin network.
While most of the construction will be underground, certain above-ground construction will also be necessary. POPs will vary in size from approximately 10,000-15,000 square feet (Type I facilities), to 4,000-7,000 square feet (Type II facilities), to 1,000-2,000 square feet (Type III facilities). MFNS will only construct Type II and III facilities as part of the Project - one Type II POP and eight Type III POPs for the San Francisco Bay Area, and four Type II POPs and eleven Type III POPs for the Los Angeles Basin. POPs will house personnel and equipment necessary to support, test, power and maintain the fiber optic networks. MFNS will also locate manholes, handholes, pull boxes and assist points - all of which afford access to buried fiber cable and conduit - partially above ground.10 Most of the construction will occur in disturbed rights-of-way. However, a small portion of the construction, including portions of the fiber optic network and POP facilities, will occur outside these rights-of-way.
MFNS will use two primary construction techniques to create underground space for the conduit: open trenching and directional boring. MFNS will dig open trenches along railroad rights-of-way, and it will bore holes to cross intersections and natural features such as streams, sensitive biological habitat, or cultural resources. After trenching/boring, MFNS will install conduit, pull fiber optic cable through the conduit, close up the trenches and bore holes, and restore the original surfaces and contours of the land.
In the future, MFNS will construct and install fiber optic loops connecting the fiber optic backbone we approve in this decision to individual customer premises. It does not seek approval of such construction in this Application, but requests that the Commission adopt a process for approving minor construction so that MFNS is not required to file a formal application each time it must construct distribution loops. Because we do not now know the extent of construction MFNS will seek to engage in, we decline to adopt such a process at this time. If, when MFNS seeks Commission approval to install local loop facilities, an abbreviated approval process appears consistent with environmental protection, we will revisit MFNS' request.
6 Maps showing the general locations of the MFNS installations are attached to this decision as Appendix A. 7 A POP is the location where the cable would be connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network, and is located above-ground. The installation of fiber optic cable, which occurs after the fiber optic conduit has been installed, is not included as part of the Project; cable installation is covered under MFNS' existing CPCN. 8 These counties are San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin. 9 These counties are Los Angeles and Orange. 10 Manholes have street-level concrete or iron covers flush with the street, and cover underground fiberglass boxes measuring no more than 4' x 6' x 6'. Pull boxes and manholes are the same thing. Handholes are fiberglass boxes measuring 36" x 24" x 36". Assist points are manholes through which fiber optic cable is spooled.
