Photos: Fibre in the sewers to speed up UK cities

Push for Broadband Britain...

UK company H2O Networks has announced plans to bring superfast broadband - offering speeds of up to 100Mbps - to UK cities by laying fibre optic cables in the sewer. This is a cheaper option that digging up streets where existing copper cabling is laid.

Photo credit: H2O Networks

Waste water ducts can easily accommodate the fibre cabling (pictured above) that supports high bandwidth services.

Either Bournemouth, Dundee or Northampton will be chosen as the first city to get H2O's fibre treatment. Work will begin in September and if all goes to plan the deployment will be completed by March 2010.

Elfed Thomas, MD of H2O Networks, said in a statement: "This solution will help to resolve the issue that many households and broadband customers in the UK have insufficient connectivity bandwidths because they are attached to legacy networks deployed in the 20th century that just can't cope with demand."

Photo credit: H2O Networks

The UK has 360,000 miles of sewers and H2O Networks told silicon.com it is in discussions with various councils to bring fibre to other cities across the country.

The company said putting fibre in sewers has an added benefit - since the cables are laid at a greater depth than conventional cabling and are therefore less likely to be accidentally severed.

Photo credit: H2O Networks