- Three-year project to accelerate rollout of broadband and
mobile signal in rural areas
- Scheme also aims to help reduce leakage from the public water
supply
Fibre broadband cables could be fed through the country’s water
pipes as part of the government’s plan to speed up the nationwide
roll out of lightning-fast broadband and mobile coverage in rural
areas.
Four million pounds is available for cutting-edge innovators to
trial what could be a quicker and more cost-effective way of
connecting fibre optic cables to homes, businesses and mobile
masts, without the disruption caused by digging up roads and
land.
Civil works, in particular installing new ducts and poles, can
make up as much as four fifths of the costs to industry of
building new gigabit-capable broadband networks.
This new scheme could turbocharge the government’s £5 billion
Project Gigabit plan to level up broadband access in
hard-to-reach areas as well as the £1 billion Shared Rural
Network which will bring strong and reliable 4G phone signals to
many of the most isolated parts of the country.
Digital Infrastructure Minister said:
The cost of digging up roads and land is the biggest obstacle
telecoms companies face when connecting hard-to-reach areas to
better broadband, but beneath our feet there is a vast network
of pipes reaching virtually every building in the country.
So we are calling on Britain’s brilliant innovators to help us
use this infrastructure to serve a dual purpose of serving up
not just fresh and clean water but also lightning-fast digital
connectivity.
The project will also look to test solutions that reduce the
amount of water lost every day due to leaks, which is 20% of the
total put into the public supply. It will involve putting
connected sensors in the pipes which allow water companies to
improve the speed and accuracy with which they can identify a
leak and repair it. Water companies have committed to delivering
a 50% reduction in leakage, and this project can help to reach
that goal.
Deployment challenges for essential utilities such as water and
telecoms are complex and tightly regulated because both are parts
of the country’s critical national infrastructure. The project
will consider these regulatory barriers as well as the economic,
technical, cultural and collaborative challenges and impact on
consumer bills.
Any solution used to trial fibre optic cables in the water mains
will be approved by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) before
being used in a real world setting. The DWI requires rigorous
testing ahead of approving any products that can be used in
drinking water pipes, and fibre has already been deployed in
water pipes in other countries such as Spain.
The government is already considering giving broadband firms
access to more than a million kilometres of underground utility
ducts to boost the rollout of next-generation broadband -
including electricity, gas and sewer networks - and will soon
respond to a consultation on changing regulations to make
infrastructure sharing easier.
The government has already given broadband suppliers access to
existing infrastructure to help speed up roll out, with
electricity poles used extensively throughout England to carry
broadband cables.
Stephen Unger, Commissioner at the Geospatial Commission, said:
Fibre is the future of digital communications. Its unmatched
performance and reliability can seamlessly connect our society
together. But it took over a hundred years to build the legacy
copper network, so replacing it with fibre won’t be easy.
The best way to meet this challenge is to use existing
infrastructure, such as the water pipes that already reach
every home and business in the country. Our ambition must be
for reliable broadband to become as easy to access tomorrow as
drinking water is today.
The Fibre in Water project is due to conclude in March 2024. The
final year of the project will explore scaling proven solutions
right across the country.
Deadline for applications to the competition is 4
October.
ENDS
The government has launched a competition
to select a consortium, which could comprise telecoms companies,
utility providers and engineering companies, to lead and deliver
the project. As part of this, a region or multiple regions of the
country will be selected to host the trial.
The Fibre in Water
competition is being run by the Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport in partnership with the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Geospatial Commission
