 large amounts of capacity, fiber is less costly to maintain than copper cabling. Less equipment is needed to boost signals that www.TechnicalPDF.com fade, there are fewer repair issues, and capacity can be upgraded by changing equipment connected to fiber. Entire new fiber strands are not usually required. Expanding into New Territories When telephone and cable TV companies expand into new areas, they are faced with high costs of getting permits from local governments, hanging cables on telephone poles, and digging up streets to lay fiber. Carriers that want to avoid these expenses negotiate 20- to 30-year leases for exclusive rights to spare fiber. These leases are referred to as Indefeasible Rights of Use, IRUs. Examples of organizations with spare fiber are electric utilities and long-haul network providers. Electric utilities have large networks of fiber associated with transmitting power to customers. According to Google Fiber's head of business operations in Huntsville, Alabama, Caroline de Gantis, "Leasing the infrastructure in Huntsville rather than building from scratch allows us to bring Google Fiber to even more people, faster." De Gratis was quoted in CNBC.com's May 23, 2017, article by Colin Gibbs, "Alphabet's Cost Cutting on Display as Google Fiber Rolls Out In Alabama." ACCESS NETWORKS IN CABLE OPERATORS' NETWORKS Access networks in cable operators' and traditional telephone companies' networks use a different type of customer modem. However, both telephone companies and cable Multiple System Operators (MSOs) face the challenge of upgrading access networks to increase capacity. Access networks are those portions of a www.TechnicalPDF.com network between a provider's equipment in neighborhoods and that of the customer. Per Neilson, cable and satellite TV reception is available to 82 percent of the population in the United States. MSOs are large cable TV providers with service areas that extend over many states. They are referred to as MSOs because they grew by purchasing other cable companies and m