Gigaclear Harness Disused Water Mains for UK Fibre Optic Broadband

Fibre optic ISP Gigaclear has confirmed that they’re working with the largest water-only supplier in the United Kingdom, Affinity Water, to pilot a new approach in rural Hertfordshire that could see them running their ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) broadband cables through disused water mains.

In the past we’ve seen plenty of examples where operators’ have tried to harness existing underground systems, such as active sewers, in order to run their high capacity fibre optic cables. Sometimes this can work well, but in other cases the problems have made such methods unviable (e.g. the sewer might not be stable enough to support their cables).

However Gigaclear’s new approach appears to involve running their fibre optic cables through existing pipe work, which is challenging not least due to the uneven build-up of elements like lime-scale, as well as other contaminants or damage that might be caused along the pipe. But of course that’s precisely why you trial these things first.

Chris Harrison, Gigaclear’s Head of Design, said:

“On paper, the concept of using existing infrastructure to deliver the latest technology direct to people’s homes makes perfect sense. This feasibility study will help us understand if we can turn a great idea into reality.

If it’s successful, it will bring significant benefits to our customers. Because Gigaclear is building completely new broadband networks, putting our fibres through the disused pipes would mean we don’t have to dig new trenches to lay cables – minimising the disruption to the rural communities in which we work. It would also speed up our build programme, particularly in areas where we would otherwise need to dig in or beside roads as the permitting and traffic management planning process to enable this can be mean lengthy delays in the implementation of the network.

As an innovative company, it seems only right that we should consider innovative ways of delivering our technologically advanced product and this has the potential to do just that.”

One other problem with disused water mains is that a lot of utility companies will often either directly upgrade the infrastructure (i.e. make the mains active again) or completely remove whole sections of the pipework, such as in order to make land environmentally safe for re-building or to farm.

Never the less Gigaclear claims that some of the early results from their initial pilot, which is being run between the villages of Furneux Pelham and Little Hormead, have produced a “positive” outcome. Both partners now appear to be “optimistic that disused pipes could be used in the construction of Gigaclear’s new networks in this region” and similar arrangements are being considered for other parts of the country.

In theory there could be millions of tons of disused water pipes across the UK, many of which have been abandoned and some of these mains are large diameter cast iron pipes from disused reservoirs or pumping stations. Clearly an opportunity does exist, even if it might not work everywhere.