Broadband via sewers

[pennywise]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7104011.stm

****ing fantastic idea, I honestly don't know how someone hasn't came up with this before. I mean, every single house in the UK is linked to some sort of sewage network, and because of this it's probably the most reliable and easily-implemented broadband service ever. The only problem I can see is if someone accidentally digs up a sewer pipe and breaks the cable, which would mean laying an entire street with new cable (and this could only be done once the sewer pipe was totally cleaned up and inspected, which could take a few weeks...), unless there were ways to splice broken pieces of fibre-optic cable together somehow. Who knows...

And for all you idiots out there, sewer pipes mostly carry waste water from drains and stuff, not actual sewage from your toilets or whatever

Articles of interest (**** everyone that lives in Bournemouth):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7104011.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7387836.stm

[Dan2k3k4]

Heh, kool... but what about rats? Wouldn't they be able to find a way into the pipes and naw on the cables?

[pennywise]

I'm sure they would, and it would probably be one of the biggest problems that they'd encounter now that I think about it... They must have some sort of exchange boxes down there though, so that the maximum length of cable is like 100m or something, so that it can be replaced pretty easily and with minimum fuss if a cable ever does break :o It does look like pretty heavy duty stuff they're using though (check the video out in the first link), so it would probably take ages to wear down.

[Dan2k3k4]

Would be kool if they coated it in poison too... rofl...

[[USAC]S|Cpl.TinFoil]

I've got an idea. Broadband powered by the amount of feces you contribute to the sewer system.

[pennywise]

I've got an idea. Broadband powered by the amount of feces you contribute to the sewer system.

Broadband powered by YOUR MUM, LAST NIGHT!

Seriously though, if this takes off properly, I can see the likes of BT and Virgin Media starting to **** their pants a bit because this kind of service could easily take a massive chunk of their business away. It's cheap to implement, more than likely cheap to maintain since British Water (or whatever they're called) manage the infrastructure, and they can get PROPER "high speed internet" to almost anyone, anywhere. More than likely though, I can see them being bought out by BT, or ****ed over because of some obscure copyright infringement...

[[BFE]TA|Navajo]

Like the internet doesn't have enough 'crap' on it now... LOL.

[pennywise]

Like the internet doesn't have enough 'crap' on it now... LOL.

OH DEAR GOD IT BURNS

[VonBarter]

That is nasty, just dig a hole cheapos!