Press & PR

Britain's rollout of fibre broadband could occur much more quickly and cheaply by running the cables through the country's sewers, it has been suggested.

While the issue of creating a fibre optic network around the UK continues to be batted around the political arena, some universities and council offices have embraced a quick and dirty solution.

"We had this big infrastructure problem in the UK and we had this existing ducting and I just thought why can't we use the sewers," explained Elfed Thomas, the managing director of sewer broadband installation firm H20 Networks.

"There is no reason why this can't be deployed throughout the UK," he told the BBC.

Mr Thomas highlighted that it costs "between £150 and £200 per metre" to dig up roads for broadband lines, while running them through sewers costs "nowhere near that".

In addition, Mr Thomas claimed that it is possible to install faster broadband connections to a 2km area in four hours by using the sewers, rather than the "six to 12 months in the planning" that traditional installation would take.


Faster broadband lines would allow consumers and businesses to make the most of high-bandwidth services such as internet telephony service from Vonage, which would receive a boost to call quality with a high speed line.

This could encourage more people to switch away from their legacy landline phone and choose a voice plan with a flat monthly fee, such as VonageV-Plan 1 which offers unlimited free UK and Ireland calls for just £5.99 a month.