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Google 'Toilet ISP' Gag Not Without Precedent

Posted by Zonk on from the oh-the-halcyon-dot-com-days dept.

1sockchuck writes "Yesterday, Google's annual April Fools' joke featured Google TiSP, a free home wireless broadband service that connected via a 'commode-based router' and runs fiber cabling through the sewer system. This is actually not without precedent. Back in the dot-com boom, delivering broadband through sewers was the focus of CityNet Telecom, which raised $375 million in funding from major VC and private equity firms in 2000 and 2001. The company used remote-controlled robots to lay fiber through sewer lines and actually created sewer-based networks in Albuquerque and Indianapolis before merging with Universal Access in 2003."

4 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Quoth the robot, by Spazntwich · · Score: 0, Redundant

    "Why? Why was I programmed to smell feces?!"

  2. My grammer sucketh by grahamsz · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Just so you know, I can see and acknowledge the mistake in the text above. I was just a second too slow on the submit.

  3. sewer based network by SimonInOz · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Ah come on, you're shitting me here?

    --
    "Cats like plain crisps"
  4. Sniff by vlsi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    who is sniffing my TiSP network?