Altnets told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber through abandoned pipes
Why churn up roads when there's thousands of miles of disused infrastructure underfoot?
Network operators laying fiber infrastructure could cut their costs by taking advantage of "thousands of miles" of abandoned infrastructure, including gas and water pipes, according to a firm that tracks such things.
AssetHUB, which describes itself as a marketplace and trading platform for assets and infrastructure, claims that companies such as the UK's alternative network providers (altnets) could save millions on deployment costs if they don't have to dig up roads to put new fiber in place.
"While the installation of fiber is crucial for improved connectivity for communities, the process of digging up roads leads to significant public inconvenience. It often causes issues such as traffic delays, noise pollution and disruptions to daily life," claimed AssetHUB chief exec Rob Leenderts. Digging up roads and footpaths is costly, and can be even more expensive if deployments have to be rerouted around tough obstacles, he added.
Openreach, the infrastructure arm of BT, already allows other providers to reuse its ducts and other facilities under what is known as Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA), but these may not always be available.
Infrastructure from other utilities could help altnets overcome obstructions in these situations, with pipes and passages sometimes crossing roads, rivers, and railways, and potentially even providing routes into residential properties, AssetHUB says.
"Abandoned utility infrastructure is everywhere," Leenderts told The Register. "AssetHUB currently has almost 20,000 km (12,400 miles) mapped and is in discussions with other utility providers about their infrastructure."
"Every year, a percentage of older utility infrastructure needs to be replaced with modern plastic piping, leaving the abandoned assets in the ground," he explained. AssetHUB estimates that there are around 20,000 km of abandoned gas pipes in the UK and another 20,000 km of abandoned water pipes.
While the fiber rollout continues, Openreach said it is now offering a symmetric 1 Gbps broadband service. This will be available from April 1 (we're assured this isn't a joke) at a £100 ($126) per calendar month wholesale rental charge.
The new service will allow internet providers that use Openreach to present further choice to their end customers, with a symmetric service offering high upload speeds for large files like videos, said to be helpful for content creators.
Reusing existing infrastructure has become a major gripe in recent years as the UK government has pushed for modern fiber networks to be rolled out across the country.
- Openreach tests 50 Gbps broadband – don't expect it anytime soon
- BT fiber rollout passes 17 million homes, altnet challenge grows
- UK gives Openreach £289M for 4 rural broadband contracts in 'gigabit by 2030' push
- Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in
Last year, ministers under both Conservative and Labour governments instructed network companies to do more to share infrastructure. A particular bugbear was said to be utility poles appearing everywhere, as these have been described as "quicker, more affordable, less disruptive, and considerably better for the environment" than digging a trench to lay cables.
We asked some altnets if they were prepared to reuse abandoned utility infrastructure when laying new fiber, or if they were already doing so, but none was prepared to comment.
CityFibre, said to be the third-largest network provider in the UK after Openreach and Virgin Media, pointed us to a recent interview in New Civil Engineer with its director of supply chain, James Thomas, who said that particular attention is paid to underground assets and BT's PIA mechanism, which allows third-party organizations to install new connections.
"If it's underground – which a lot of the spine routes would be – getting through arterial roads and even some of the back country roads, we will use BT assets," he stated.
Leenderts insisted that some successful use cases of abandoned asset reuse have been carried out across the UK.
"We expect the most benefits can be found from longer segments of disused pipes in more rural areas, or from short runs in urban areas that cross difficult or expensive areas such as roads, rivers or railways," he said.
A spokesperson from altnet Community Fibre told us: "Community Fibre has done virtually no digging when we were either building our network or when connecting our customers as we use Openreach's ducts and poles. We believe that aside of the obvious cost advantages of using existing infrastructure ducts and poles, unnecessary digging is also bad for the environment and residents with the associated congestion and disruption." ®