Super-Fast Broadband Via the Sewer System
Bournemouth, UK, is often mocked by many of the British for the average age of its citizens. In short, a seaside resort where many go to die. Jack Dee once quipped that the shop windows are all fitted with bi-focals to allow passers-by to ascertain what lies within.
But the citizens, it seems, are having the last laugh as it has been reported this week that the town is to be the first in the UK to make use of the sewer system in a whole new way.
Rather than rely on the rather un-environmentally friendly process of digging up swathes of countryside and road to lay cables, H2O Networks Ltd have been called in for the gig.
As is so often the case, simple ideas seem to have manifest benefits and using sewer systems to lay fibre optic cables is a case in point.
As already stated, there is no need to dig up roads.
Conventional cables are normally laid a mere 45 cm below ground. Utilising the sewer systems means that the cables lie a full 10 metres below ground, decreasing the likelihood of damage and increasing security in potentially dangerous situations.
And of course, with no digging needed, with the sewers already in place, getting the fibre optics laid can be achieved far more quickly.
So, as many Britons languish behind with slow internet access, Bournemouth is casually reinventing itself as a rather fast, happening town, and in the not-too-distant future, will enjoy internet speeds approaching 100Mbps.
The UK has 360,000 miles worth of sewers. As Elfed Thomas, CEO of H2O Networks says:
“This is just the start of bringing next generation connectivity to the UK.”
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Photo of Victorian sewer courtesy of Flickr
People forget that the water authorities need to dig up the sewers to replace them far ofter that you would think and with all these cables down there its going to be much harder to do street works as fast as possible and not risk snipping these fibre lines!
TISP is a reality! And google said I would have it last year. WTF!
I’ve seen a lot of roads torn up for sewer work, but it was always pipe less than a meter diameter, not the walk-around size shown here.
Around here, it’s easier to bury 130 km of cable than to get it the last 100 meters or so into individual homes.
Seems to me the laugh is on the corporations who don’t realize the potential of their assets in the ground.
Well, the rest of the country must be feeling sh**ty.
Orly?
Makes sense. Half of what I see on the internet looks like it came out of the sewer anyway.
1) Rats can chew through copper wire.
2) Rats live in sewers
A fitting place for 80% of the webs content!
There’s no better place than the sewer unfortunately all these wires will be useless when its all done wirelessly
This actually is a pretty good idea, I mean you limit the amount of resources and money invested by using architecture that’s already there. The only problem is that maintenance could be a bit more difficult, and the scope at which this reaches is limited to areas with proper sewer passages.
This is old hat elsewhere. MFS (Metro Fiber Systems, later acquired by UUNet, which was then acquired by MCI/WorldCom, etc) was laying fiber in metro right of ways (sewers and other such structures) in major metro areas of the US going back to at least the mid 90’s. They were using this to deliver 10mbit links to metro-area businesses in their early days, but fiber being fiber the capacities being sold to the end user went way up over time. These sorts of facilities are still being used heavily in metro areas in the US by many carriers, offering up to 10Gbit/sec connections to downtown US business locations.
Does this mean there will more toilet humor on the internet in these areas?
Maintenance will be a b*tch, and “H2O Networks” is an ironic name at that.
The obvious next step from this idea is that all new developments should have a services tunnel of adequate diameter for a man to ride a motor bike through it. All services to be installed in the tunnel: gas, power, telecoms, water, stormwater and sewage. T offs to individual properties such as houses could be through pipes so that cables could be fed through to eleiminate digging and trenching. Over the lifetime of the development it would pay off handsomely and give better service to the users.
There’s a surf spot in Los Angeles called “Sh*t Pipe”, I think that’s an appropriate name for this type of internet connection.
H20 Networks….Fast as sh*t.
Great idea if it works for the long term. As the article does not really cover any of the negatives of such a solution.
Using the sewer system for rights of way is a very common option in cities. And it makes great business for whoever runs the sewers ! Rivers, the metro, natural gas pipelines, rail tracks, electricity lines, motorways, old pneumatic tube networks, purpose made urban galleries, trenches in the street… There a whole developed market for rights of way usable for running fiber, and sewers are just one of the competitors.
Talk about a sh**ty internet connection.
OMG! “A series of tubes…”
What happens when a plumber needs to auger (roto-rooter) the lines?
I like the way they made Jack Dee’s joke a little more up market, like the people that read this web site wont understand it
In Bournemouth the shop windows are all fitted with bi-focals so everyone who walks past can see the stuff inside
I do appreciate the fact that the streets do not have to be torn up to achieve their outcome.
I live in New York, New York WHERE THEY NEVER STOP DIGGING and tearing up the streets.
Hasn’t this been done in Paris for years now? I’m pretty sure I saw it on “Megacities – Paris” on NGC.
uhm.. wasn’t this an april fools joke by google?
http://www.google.com/tisp/
Yay. I live in B’mouth (and no, I’m not 80+)
Very good idea.
I ask you to help me to contact to firm H2O. Installation an optical cable in the water drain interestingly for us.
Possible problems:-
Isn’t this going to impede sewer flow, reducing flow rate? Yes I now the sewers are big, but they surely need to be smooth too, to avoid gunk building up.
What about chemical and bio attack (bacterial, rats, …) of the cables from the sewer contents?
Surely it will be a hindrance when drains are needed to be cleared – the cleaning rods -or whatever gets used on big sewers – will snag the cables.
This sound like a project to leave as soon as it is implemented, as the maintenance will not be pleasant.
Bournemouth sadly doesn’t get to lay claim to being the first ‘UK’ to utilise the sewer network to run fibre optic cable, it’s also old news in London as can be seen in this pic on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jondoe_264/1235440615/
Still a cool story though, says the man who explores sewers.
*** Rats can chew through copper wire ***
They are laying fibre optic actually.
Man, I wish they’d upgrade my sh**ty internet infrastructure.
Hey this is a good idea even though its in a sewer and rats could chew through the wire but we could just put metal caseings around the wires which wouldnt be very hard. and yeah most stuff from the internet comes from a sewer anyway =P
I’ve never been happier to have a ***** connection!
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Reality? I’m interested, how do you order Google TiSP?
Ironically, fiber optics cables are not wires per se, they conduct like via solid plastic fibers (optical waveguides) not copper pair as most of the older telecommunications is based on.
Not everything can be done or should be done wirelessly. There are frequencies and bandwidth restrictions for many different areas. As well as certain materials either reflect and distort or absorb these signals making it almost impossible in some areas to use wireless.
I am sure some of you are familiar with a dropped call on a cell phone. Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, and other newer signaling is similar in hot and cold spots (or cell phone providers call them “dead” spots).
Another thing about wireless communication, the standard Wi-Fi and Wi-Max configurations on a Wireless Access Point (WAP for short) is about 50 users before it really has problems. There are a couple of WAPs that can handle 64 users at a time but the people that are closer to the WAP get better service than the people further away, sometimes the people more than twice the distance from the WAP get dropped.
There is a lot of stuff that needs to be ironed out in the future for wireless usage and interfacing. I hope this clears up some of the misunderstandings of technology.
Our best best for long distance wireless connections (albeit slower speeds) currently is Wi-Max for Internet connections (WANs) and Wi-Fi for our wireless LANs if you were to go almost completely wireless.
I am formerly of that field in the electronics engineering side of things.
This is something good news, even in recent news there was a news that now net will be available with Lightning fast. As the use age of net is being increasing day by day such technology will help for internet users.