UK Gov looking into using other utility pipes for fibre broadband

[HEXUS]

More than a million kilometres of the UK's underground utility ducts are currently 'passive'.

Read more.

[Ttaskmaster]

This is not news. Companies are already allowed to do this.

Our sewers have had fibre comms laid in since at least 2006. I've seen them with my own two eyes on many occasions. BT lines are typically stapled to the soffit at about 10 o'clock.

Unfortunately they don't like doing it, because they still have to deal with us and follow our rules, which costs a lot of money.
Since they are modifying our asset, they have to implement any repairs/alterations and bring them up to our standard (or pay us to do it for them), as well as adhering to our working procedures which are far more stringent than theirs. They also have to buy a load of specialised kit with high safety ratings, and every member of their crew must have things like Confined Spaces certificates. Often they'll need to get in specialist rescue cover, like Mines Rescue.

We, however, love it because they have to fix our stuff and it saves us loads of money!!

[spacein_vader]

I'd say BT are already experts in effluent anyway.

[KrisWragg]

Meanwhile the can just gets kicked further down the road, I was patiently waiting for Gfast, but that got scrapped now its patiently waiting for FTTP.

On one hand I'm glad I can get 80mbit at my current house compared with about 10mbit at my old one, but on the other hand game downloads are getting huge (last PS4 game I downloaded was over 100GB) so 80mbit just doesn't cut it unless you leave it overnight.

[philehidiot]

I've seen them with my own two eyes on many occasions.

Smelt 'em too I bet.

Bagsy not ever having to fix the internet.

The internet is swimming in filth anyway.

EDIT: That picture is also a lie. A BT man never smiles that much. One who is about to have to traipse through a sewer to flush the turds out of someone's FTTP connection is definitely not smiling that much.

[watercooled]

Fair and reasonable commercial terms and conditions must apply for sharing the passive networks with ISPs.

I guess this is the important part.

Also from the Gov website linked:

It could also mean strengthening broadband companies’ access to run cables along new and existing infrastructure lining the road and rail networks across the length and breadth of the country.

This is already done to some degree but carries its own challenges. A guy I worked with worked on rail-side fibre many years ago, or more specifically repairing it because the breaks caused by vibrations of passing trains.

[Ttaskmaster]

This is already done to some degree but carries its own challenges. A guy I worked with worked on rail-side fibre many years ago, or more specifically repairing it because the breaks caused by vibrations of passing trains.

It's not actually the passing trains that cause the vibration, but the track-tamping machines... and really, it's more that they flatten the ground and physically crush the assets beneath.

[watercooled]

He was speaking about fibre in ducting alongside the tracks rather than running under them. Could still be the case though as I believe part of the issue is they were physically too close to the tracks.

It's quite fascinating the amount of places you see telecom cables run - a road tunnel not far from me has a lesser-known subsection below the road surface originally intended for trams, but that plan was scrapped. Now the space is used to carry both electrical cables and large bundles of telecom cables. One of the more interesting places I've worked - I suppose similar to the sewer networks in some way, but minus the smell and fatbergs.

[Ttaskmaster]

He was speaking about fibre in ducting alongside the tracks rather than running under them. Could still be the case though as I believe part of the issue is they were physically too close to the tracks.

It it - When you push the ground down, it also moves out to the side. Angles vary, depending on soil type, but look at the slope angles of an embankment. That's roughly what you're looking at. Anything within that cone is considered within the zone of influence... including buildings above that cone.

[Iota]

fatbergs.

Got to be a royal pain in the arse having to fix a problem only to discover you can't get to it due to one of those.

[watercooled]

Off on a complete tangent but I wonder how much of a headache it caused the utility companies with people substituting bog roll with kitchen roll or tissues when everyone decided buying 50 tonnes of the stuff was their primary survival instinct.

[DDY]

This immediately came to mind!

https://archive.google.com/tisp/index.html

[Corky34]

Got to be a royal pain in the arse having to fix a problem only to discover you can't get to it due to one of those.

If they ask nicely I'll consider moving.

[cheesemp]

Meanwhile the can just gets kicked further down the road, I was patiently waiting for Gfast, but that got scrapped now its patiently waiting for FTTP.

On one hand I'm glad I can get 80mbit at my current house compared with about 10mbit at my old one, but on the other hand game downloads are getting huge (last PS4 game I downloaded was over 100GB) so 80mbit just doesn't cut it unless you leave it overnight.

Just try 20mbps I use to get 30 when FTTC came to the area which was fine at the time, but it just keeps syncing lower and lower year after year. My cabinet is the one large (500+ properties) one on the local exchange that never got gfast. Lots of smaller cabinets in less dense areas did weridly. Don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to getting FTTP but i'm desperate? Come on Openreach - your my only hope unfortunately. Nothing like being in a town slightly too small for Virgin media, but urban enough everyone thinks your sorted. I can only get 4g from one provider at 8mbps due to living in a dip behind a hill.

[Phage]

TransACT (Canberran Telco), went further in the 90s, and actually had the utility company become a 50% partner in the business. This enabled a very fast roll out at very low cost. I actually used it as an example in my Masters, or a strategic partnership done right.

[chj]

TransACT (Canberran Telco), went further in the 90s, and actually had the utility company become a 50% partner in the business. This enabled a very fast roll out at very low cost. I actually used it as an example in my Masters, or a strategic partnership done right.

Does this lock out other companies from using the infrastructure though?