University Taps Sewers for Internet Access

Stony Stevenson writes "A web connection via the toilet bowl may sound like Google's most recent April Fool, but the University of Aberdeen plans to welcome students back with a high bandwidth internet network connected via the sewers. The university tapped H2O Networks to provide a high capacity link for the next 10 years, enabling students to access the internet from their halls of residence. H2O Networks is a deploying dark fibre in the UK's waste water network to enable connectivity to those who have limited access. The network is known as 'fibre via the sewer'."

I give 5 to 1 odds

[BlackCobra43]

That there won't be any meaningful conversation on this topic and its technological implications but rather page after page of really...shitty...puns.

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Re:At last!

[Tablizer]

with all that pr0n, our minds are in the gutter anyhow

I'm going with FAIL...

[rAiNsT0rm]

OK, I'll admit I haven't researched this "technology" but I do run one of the top 50 largest university networks in the U.S. and I can see nothing but problems with this one. First, when they snake one of these pipes how do they expect not to destroy the fiber? How about pipe repairs? Your telling me your going to be able to repair/replace a pipe without cutting the fiber or the pipe? (and cutting the new pipe to install it wouldn't strike me as a great option) This is just plain stupid.

On my network we utilize the steam tunnels and access tunnels which house plumbing to run the fiber, but never *in* the pipes... that just doesn't make sense. Sounds like a shitty mess to me, best of luck with that one.

Actually they use robots generally..

[bombastinator]

It is very rare for a house to have a main sewer line of over about 6 inches. My understanding is they tow the cables with small robots.
Also a house would not necessarily need to go up a toilet stack, as long as they have a pipe for sinks and what not. The cable probably doesn't even go into the house directly, but instead exits the house via the stack opening on the roof and then comes down again. Much more sanitary.

What happens when the pipe is clogged?

[netik]

I've had some disastrous sewage problems in my unit in San Francisco because of heavy rains, bad plumbing, failure to follow proper city code, and otherwise.

What happens when waste water pipes back up and the augers, snakes, and fancy plumbing tools shred the fiber to pieces? There's a reason why we use dedicated conduit for telecommunications lines.

A better solution exists, and that's the one used by IPN - Instead of sewage lines, they use the natural gas lines to run fiber optics. Gas will never plug up a pipe and fiber will never start a fire as it's only photons.