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Britain Stays Up to Speed with Sewer Broadband
100 Mbps with less installation hassle
by KathrynV Wednesday 30-Jan-2008 tags: Fiber · alternatives · UK
Broadband industry lobbyists have warned UK leaders that Britain is going to get left behind if it doesn’t start working to deploy super-fast broadband sometime soon. The country has struggled with how to do so and appears to be turning to the sewers for its answer. This would allow the provision of 100 Mbps speeds without extensive road construction.

“H2O managing director Elfed Thomas said the system "gives organisations a cost-effective alternative to the traditional method of deploying fibre cable. It offers a fixed term cost rather than bandwidth tariffs, so that when extra capacity is needed, its there and the business doesnt incur further charges.” (source)

The University of Aberdeen already runs fiber through the sewers in order to provide fast Internet to its students. H20 Networks, the company that developed the Aberdeen system, is currently in negotiations with several UK regions to do the same thing for city residents.

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amungus
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duh

a conduit is a conduit... as long as they're not laying bare fiber, without any cladding , I think it's a great idea. Sure wouldn't want to be working on it, but it seems like it'd be easier than starting from scratch.

Romney2012
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Re: duh

said by amungus:

a conduit is a conduit... as long as they're not laying bare fiber, without any cladding , I think it's a great idea. Sure wouldn't want to be working on it, but it seems like it'd be easier than starting from scratch.
I agree. But, like you, I wouldn't want to be a technician dispatched to go troubleshoot an outage in the sewer. Fiber cladding chewed on by rats??
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53059959
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Re: duh

I would think they have that figured out already, since they already have undersea fiber optic cable that is resistant to shark bites.

Old_Grouch
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They only did it because they heard that some successful American broadband companies' service was in the toilet.

They thought they'd leap ahead.
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DHRacer
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Marketing slogans?

If Qwest's is "Ride the Light" does that mean Britain's is going to be "Ride the Sewer"?

dvd536
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Re: Marketing slogans?

said by DHRacer:

If Qwest's is "Ride the Light" does that mean Britain's is going to be "Ride the Sewer"?
Anyone thats had Qwest DSL knows its "ride the lies" not ride the light.
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HiVolt
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said by DHRacer:

If Qwest's is "Ride the Light" does that mean Britain's is going to be "Ride the Sewer"?
Ride The Shite.
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Marketing slogans?

said by HiVolt See ProfileRide The Shite. [/BQUOTE :

That is FUNNY. You just made my day!

Toguro

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1 edit

Googles dark porcelain

»www.google.com/tisp/install.html

alphapointe
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Re: Googles dark porcelain

Beat me to it...

en102
Canadian, eh?

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Is the broadband 'pipe' large enough
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kommander

join:2003-11-03
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How do they do that?

Every time I hear about running fiber through the sewer all i can imagine is the line ran out of a toilet. I know that can't be right. How do they get the line out of the sewer pipe and to a spot that is usable. What happens if they need to run a "snake" through a pipe with fiber in it. Does liquid plumber destroy these lines. I've just gotta know.

gaforces
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2 edits

Re: How do they do that?


Dangers of Installing Fiber
They used trained turtles to drag the lines around, with a huge rat as overseer... sorry couldn't resist

The sewer company's have been using fiber lines with cameras and snakes/robots to clear lines for a long time.
I suspect that the lines are rated for a period of time in a corrosive environment, then they replace them.

WeSRT4

join:2000-11-20
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Drano FTW

Network congestion could be elimated by simply using Drano every once in a while.
Kiryu

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United Kingd

Sewers?

France has been doing this for years now. Deployed their city wide (paris) wifi system utilizing the sewers.
firewire9999

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Livonia, MI

Tubes?

Does this mean now that internet is really series of TUBES?

bobrk
You kids get offa my lawn
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Britian? Where's that?

I'd worry about the sewer rats chewing on the lines.

hayabusa3303
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fiber break.

talk about a sh**ie job to go down and fix.
noedge

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Re: fiber break.

Could put a whole different meaning to "back up the system"

Craptastic

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FTTT

Fiber To The Toilet...anyone? I guess the Brits would have FTTWC, Fiber To The Water Closet.

Cuchulainn
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Re: FTTT

said by Craptastic :

Fiber To The Toilet...anyone? I guess the Brits would have FTTWC, Fiber To The Water Closet.
Aberdeen is in Scotland.
FTTK? (Fibre to the Kludge)
FTTL? (Fibre to the Loo, but only in Edinburgh )
FTTD? (Fibre to the Dunny for the Glaswegians in the crowd!)

Aberdeen?
FTTB (Fibre to the Bampots)
FTTSS (Fibre to the Sheep Shaggers )
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Hehe

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Dark fibre?

Dark fibre?

Old joke, I know.

KCrimson
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Meet the Commisioner of Brittish "Dark" Fiber

Mr. Edward Norton - chief of Brittish Telecom's "Dark" Fiber efforts, pictured here entering the latest in a series of broadband sewer terminals.
tmc8080

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Re: Meet the Commisioner of Brittish "Dark" Fiber

said by KCrimson:

Mr. Edward Norton - chief of Brittish Telecom's "Dark" Fiber efforts, pictured here entering the latest in a series of broadband sewer terminals.
Norton's pseudo hero was a supposed French builder of the sewer system in Paris only to turn out to be the one who condemned the sewers..

KCrimson
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Re: Meet the Commisioner of Brittish "Dark" Fiber

and for your bonus question: What was that French man's name?
tmc8080

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Re: Meet the Commisioner of Brittish "Dark" Fiber

said by KCrimson:

and for your bonus question: What was that French man's name?
A. Pierre Francois de la Briosche
Source: »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Space

All these small countries huffing & puffing about the cost of infrastructure builds.. once the major portion of fiber optics is laid.. the technology can meet demand for 20+ years and be fully upgradeable without major overhauls. I disagree that the sewers are the only route capable of supporting cable builds, but that's just my opinion. As joked about many times.. if they do go the odorous route.. google will certainly want to help the UK map it's sewer system.

sewermaps.google.uk

phubar

@wideopenwest.com

approval from:
gilligun See Profile

Newspaper headline..........

ERRANT TURD CAUSES NATIONWIDE INTERNET OUTAGE!
stridr69

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Re: Meet the Commisioner of Brittish "Dark" Fiber

Hey, Ed Norton being the "subterranean" engineer that he was, would kick ass on bringing the U.K.'s broadband "up to speed"
I.E. maximum flush mode!

Cuchulainn
The Roar of the Masses Could be Farts

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Tony Blair is out of a job. And shite is his forte....

Alex G Bell

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2 edits

Potty Broadband

If they can use a natural gas pipe as a microwave waveguide for broadband, why not use the larger sewer pipe as a mid-band waveguide for broadband? Replace all the concrete pipes with stainless steel. They would have to calculate the wave propagation speed through various mediums. When my father worked on ground communications for project Mercury back in the early 1960s, AT&T had a problem with a microwave link from an earth station somewhere in Africa. It seems the workers who constructed the microwave tower were using the microwave horns as urinals. Once they emptied all the urine out of the waveguides, the system worked properly again.
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Re: Potty Broadband

said by Alex G Bell:

Replace all the concrete pipes with stainless steel. They would have to calculate the wave propagation speed through various mediums.
Brilliant!!!!
Award the no bid contract to Halliburton, and fund it with a tax cut for the top bracket.
Qualifies the poster for senior kommissar in the present administration.

gilligun
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what smells?

So THATS what is clogging my damn sewer..too many packets I guess
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