BT Build the Longest Continuous Stretch of Fibre Optic Cable in the UK

Openreach (BT) claims to have built the longest continuous stretch of fibre optic (spine) cable in the United Kingdom at 45 miles, which occurred as part of their Broadband East Riding project to reach 1,580 homes and businesses across a rural part of East Yorkshire.

The supposedly “record breaking” feat (note: we have not been able to verify this) was achieved as a result of plans to lay a new fibre optic cable through service tunnels underneath the Dutch River (South Goole Docks) and this would have then delivered superfast broadband to villages south of the River Ouse.

Unfortunately going under the river would have required specially trained divers because the tunnels are 40 feet down and very treacherous, not to mention that they could have also been damaged and in need of repair. Other options were also explored, such as trying to get fibre into a duct on the side of a nearby railway bridge, but that duct was full and the disruption to local rail traffic would have been problematic.

In the end BT planners designed a route, which involved a 45-mile fibre spine via Eastoft, Crowle and Thorne to the exchange in Hatfield Woodhouse without crossing the river. More fibre cable was then laid on a link between Hatfield and the main exchange in Snaith.

Gav Tate, Engineering Co-ordinator, said:

“This is the longest continuous fibre spine anywhere in the country. To ensure it worked effectively we had to tweak the electronic equipment in the exchange and in the connected cabinets to boost the broadband signal and ensure it would work properly over that distance. We also had to check every fibre joint was perfectly aligned to avoid any tiny loss in signal. It took a lot of hard work, but all the cabinets are now connected up and are working perfectly, so it was worth it in the end.”

Meanwhile the local project has already made fibre broadband available to more than 42,000 properties under the first phase of the programme and the second phase will see an additional 4,500 properties getting access to superfast broadband by December 2017.