Slashdot Mirror
UK Lifeguards Dig Their Own 100Mbps Fiber-Optic Link
MJackson writes "The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Humber, a large tidal estuary situated on the east coast of Northern England, has just become one of the UK's most remote-rural locations to have a next generation 100Mbps Fibre Optic FTTH broadband link installed. The deployment is being sponsored by FibreStream and amazingly the groundworks were completed by the lifeboat crew literally digging their own fibre. We'd do the same on our road, but the government would probably object."
What happened to social responsibility and volunteering? Most people want great service, but just expect someone else to do the work. In the current economic environment, lets hope to see more local projects like this.
sudo mount --milk --sugar
They probably felt the need to do this given that all of Hull ISPs are crap.
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
Lifeguards are hunky guys (and gals) in swimming costumes who save swimmers (or, rather, non-swimmers!) at beaches and swimming pools. The RNLI is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution: note "lifeboat".
This lifeboat station is a bit remote ( 53 34'34.34"N 0 6'39.69"E - take a look in Google Earth - it's quite a place). According to the station website it is 16 miles to the nearest shop, God knows how how far to a telephone exchange, so ADSL was never an option. Next, the RNLI is a charity supported entirely by money received from the public. They get nothing from the government, which is a Good Thing for the efficiency of the service; but does mean that there was no way to afford the horrendous install fee for 16 miles of cable.
All the crews and their families live at the station - imagine that as a way of life.
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
You must remember that our national life boar service (RNLI) is a CHARITY and receives NO government sponsorship whatsoever. They get all there cash by collecting in the streets, collecting tins in shops and charity events... They are a truly amazing charity and save hundreds of lives . All there members are highly motivated volunteers who have ordinary jobs but when called upon drop everything and go and save lives what ever the weather. So my point is that it is not so amazing that they dug there own fiber link, they do after all maintain all there own kit and are out to save as much cash as possible because they don't have that much of it in the first place. http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you
but the government would probably object.
It got hog-tied in red tape.
Thats great - i'm currently in South Africa (working) and it's like going back in time. Still paying $$$ for 64k circuits etc.. i'll get my shovel.
www.redcu.be
Note: your company, and how many computers is that connection shared between, this is FTTH connections, (Fibre To The Home) for a home connection it's very much next generation.
Blazing Spiders
There are similar projects in Sweden, where companies give the option to customers to bury their own fiber (with periodic oversight of course). This eliminates the initial expense of FTTH installation for the cash-strapped small ISP, and as a by-product apparently significantly reduces churn, as people become emotionally attached to the fiber they dug into the ground. It's a win-win for everyone. Of course in America the incumbents don't actually want everyone to have fiber, as they prefer to charge hugely inflated prices for substandard internet connections that require little to no provisioning of bandwidth.
For the americans on here who are quite rightly confused about who and what the RNLI are, they're like the US Coastguard. They go out in boats in insane conditions and save people from sinking. They don't have any helicopters (our navy do that), but aside from that they're pretty much the same. With one minor exception: They receive no funding from the Government whatsoever. Insane though it sounds, they get all their funds from charity donations. Give generously.
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
Not in Sweden. A friend of mine has 1gbps fiber municipal Internet at his house (previously 100mbps twisted pair).
"the RNLI is a charity supported entirely by money received from the public. They get nothing from the government, which is a Good Thing for the efficiency of the service;"
I wouldn't say "efficiency of service" is measured as to whether or not you get government money. I have worked for commercial companies that are incredibly inefficient and they don't get a penny of government money. I'd not say "efficiency" is a direct correlation to how much you have to do with a government. Maybe distance from funding source, not giving a damn where the money's coming from and not being accountable?
I personally also find it amazing and shocking that as a small island nation the people responsible for pulling drowning people out of the water, going miles out to sea in huge storms to save drowning sailors and rescue fishermen are voluntary and unfunded.
Rural Britain tends to be a little slower though, I'm lucky if I can get 2mbs where I live.
Blazing Spiders
Unless, of course, the company (which already most likely has a monopoly over the area) has paid off the town leaders in order to force the people to hire the company so they can squeeze as much out of the taxpayer as possible. In the USA... I wouldn't be surprised.
Not so. Wider fibre is easier to lay because it is harder to damage, but requires photons to be spaced further apart because total internal reflection means that the path lengths (and, hence, transit time) of two consecutive photons (or, more likely, bursts of photons) can differ by a significant amount and cause errors if the second arrives before the first. Additionally, different fibres - and even fibres laid with different amounts of bending - can leak photons (fire a laser through a drum of fibre and see it light up) limiting the maximum throughput because you need to fire larger bursts of photons to ensure that a detectable number arrive. I doubt they're running the cable at the full speed, but fibre is no more equivalent to any other fibre than copper is equivalent to any other copper.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
...a teeny apartment about as large as most people's bathrooms in the US, and pay more for it then what a two story home sitting on a few acres costs here. And twice a day you stand up smashed against other humans, just to go ride back and forth to some office where you can be smashed up against other humans all the work day long.
Much as I would like better internet service, that sort of trade is not a good one. A lot of people just wouldn't like that human termite existence.
I can think of many reasons the government might object to the roads being dug up; firstly the surface of the roads is never adequately repaired, leaving permanent damage to the roads. Often to lay fiber to your community (e.g. the village where my parents live) would involve digging up large tranches of busy road that are vital traffic routes.
Out of curiosity, why can't we tunnel under roads using robots to lay fiber?
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
Further details about the Humber station:
Its the only station with a fully professional crew. Other stations are either all volunteer (those with only Inshore boat), have one (Mechanic) or two (Coxswain & Mechanic) professionals with the rest of the crew being volunteers (the big All Weather boats) or a largely professional crew supplemented by volunteers (the E Class boats on the River Thames in London).
There are several advantages to using volunteers, one very important one being that its possible to justify having stations that do very few rescues but are there for the rare occasions where someone needs them.
YouTube of the installation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozoA4x5k2Dg
Humber Lifeboat Station at the RNLI website:
http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/north/stations/humbereastyorkshire/?page=2
Humber Lifeboat "Pride of the Humber" - around UKP 2 Million (USD 3 Million) of Fly By Wire All Weather Goodness
http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/press_centre/photos/photo_detail?articleid=344763
The crews website
http://www.spurnpoint.com/lifeboat.htm
Humber Lifeboat at work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WtSPcGpKw
No connection with the RNLI btw, other than they once rescued me and I donate by subscription.
The Life Guards are one of the regiments in the Household Cavalry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Guards_(British_Army)
Now why are they digging holes like civilian labourers?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
You're talking about multi-mode vs. single-mode fiber. Lower speed links can get away with somewhat longer runs of multi-mode fiber, but even at 100Mbps it's not THAT long. Once you get beyond 2000m you need single-mode anyway. Once you've run the single mode fiber, you have the option to go to gigabit or 10 gigabit speeds and/or add additional channels at other wavelengths.
Poor installation (including excessively sharp turns) can be a limitation but in general, you don't have to replace the fiber to take advantage of newer or better technology at the ends.
The fragility isn't that big a problem in buried cable since they are layered and contain aramid fibers for strength with an outer waterproof cover.
Given the cost of burial compared to the cost of the fiber and the minimal added cost for more fibers in the same length cable, you generally use cables with 24 fibers in them. It just doesn't make much sense to skimp on the cable when you have fixed and expensive time effort and cost in burying the thing.
So they could have limited themselves, but most likely have plenty of headroom.