Empty reels for fiber and telecom crews

Fiber across North Texas

North Texas is in the middle of a long fiber build-out. Frontier Communications moved its headquarters to Dallas in 2023 as it expands its fiber network, and other carriers, cable companies and municipal and private networks are building across the Metroplex too. Data-centre campuses add their own dense fiber between buildings and out to carrier hotels. All of it arrives on reels.

The reels fiber jobs empty

• Large wooden reels, 48 to 84 in, from long trunk and feeder cable in underground ducts and on aerial strand
• Plywood reels, 24 to 48 in, from distribution and drop cable
• Plastic reels, from small drop cable, patch cable and inside plant
• Returnable reels, sometimes, from cable makers with reel programs

Fiber cable is light compared with copper power cable, so its reels are often lighter builds: plywood flanges where a power cable would need boards, plastic where copper would need wood.

Scattered reels, gathered once

The difficulty with fiber reels isn't size, it's spread. Crews empty a reel at one handhole and the next one a mile away. Collecting from every location separately doesn't make sense. The usual pattern is for crews or a contractor to bring empties back to a central yard, and for us to collect from there on a schedule. If your project has several staging yards across the Metroplex, we can visit each one in turn on a single route.

Sorting plastic from wood

Plastic reels go to reuse first and to a plastics outlet if cracked; wooden reels go to reuse or wood recycling. Keeping the two apart in the yard saves time at the truck. Large wooden fiber reels that are sound have plenty of buyers, from other contractors to ranches and table builders.

Working with prime contractors

Fiber builds usually have layers of contractors: a carrier, a prime contractor, and subcontracted crews. We'll take instructions from whoever controls the yard, and confirm who has authority to release reels before collecting them. That avoids the awkward situation of a reel the carrier wanted back going on our truck.

Aerial versus underground jobs

Aerial builds, where fiber is lashed to steel strand on poles, tend to use mid-size reels that fit on a reel trailer behind a bucket truck. Underground builds, pulled or blown through ducts, use longer continuous lengths and bigger reels, which are set up at a handhole with a reel stand or trailer and emptied in one long pull. Underground jobs therefore leave fewer but larger empties; aerial ones leave more of the middle sizes. Directional boring crews add their own reels of duct and tracer wire to the mix. Knowing which kind of build you're running helps us plan the right truck.

Duct and innerduct reels

Plastic duct and innerduct for fiber come on large wooden reels too, often 60 to 96 in, and they're some of the biggest empties a telecom job leaves. They're one-way in most cases, and when sound they're as reusable as any power-cable reel of the same size. Some are very wide, with a long traverse, which affects how many fit on a truck; tell us the overall width when you send the count.

Timing around the build

Fiber builds move fast through neighbourhoods and business districts, and staging yards are often temporary, rented lots or a corner of a contractor's yard for a few months. Before a yard closes, it needs clearing. Book the last pickup a week or two before the lease ends, not on the final day, so there's time for a second truck if the count turns out bigger than expected.

Questions