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Brilliant B4RN and cretinous buffoons
waltergmw:
Gentlefolk,
I'm delighted to report on the magnificent progress on Broadband for the Rural North's spectacular symmetric 1 Gbps broadband services for only £30.00 (Inc VAT) per month.
The original 8 parishes had become 22 before they started burying their blown fibre tube.
That figure has now "exploded" to over 60 parishes already with well over 3,000 live services and many more underway.
Although far from total coverage, particularly in larger villages and towns, their area stretches from Kendal down to the hinterland behind Preston and from Morecambe bay at Storth and Silverdale all the way across to Austwick near Settle.
The latest recruit is Sedbergh which will provide a dual diverse routed link to Garsdale and Dent (The former FibreGarDen project area).
However and VERY sadly B4RN (and BT) are NOT immune from the senseless acts of vandalism by a tiny number of idiots.
Yesterday at around 16:30 they excavated a twin 16 mm tube and sheared through two 192 f cables before filling the hole in.
That caused all those already connected in Ingleton and a couple of Leck properties to lose connection (as Ingleton's diverse route is incomplete at present).
Luckily with an OTDR it is simplicity itself to locate the break.
The emergency response team awoke to a glorious dawn having restored all services by 04:38 this morning.
The picture below is the damaged tube and more pictures can be see for a short time at:-
https://b4rn.org.uk/b4rn-service/network-status/
Kind regards,
Walter
WWWombat:
Deliberate vandalism? Or more like a wilful accident?
We had one at work a few years back, and I happened to be watching out of the window. A JCB driver on an adjacent building site pulled a cable up out of the ground. After stopping and looking, he continued to pull until the cable snapped ... and we lost connection to the outside world immediately. An accident, but a tad more thought would have prevented any negative outcome.
I have to say, though, that your photo doesn't look like ducting for blowing fibre cables down. It looks more like a pre-made twin cable, directly-buried. Is that right?
The photos in the link look like B4RN added an impromptu chamber to house the repair. And a really fast repair, too.
waltergmw:
@ WWWombat,
Thanks for your compliment.
There is no question that this was quite deliberate vandalism.
We also observed BT in the vicinity so they had probably been treated in the same way but could also have had copper stolen.
That really is twin sheathed 16 mm Emtelle Fibreflow™ fibre duct which, in this instance, contained 2 * 192 f cables.
Here's further detail:-
http://www.emtelle.com/experience/b4rn-community-projects-emtelle-fibreflow/
You can see the tube has a rifle-type bore to maintain an air vortex to float the cable.
Two new lengths of 192 f cable were inserted.
Indeed B4RN had to add another chamber to accommodate one pair of the new joint bullets.
The other pair were remade in an existing chamber.
__________________________________________
More generally I should have mentioned B4RN's significant systems enhancements.
They now have complete dual diversity routes to Internet exchanges down to Manchester / London and up to Edinburgh / Glasgow.
I am no expert in these matters but I suspect B4RN's network is one of the most robust in the UK, once fully completed.
There will be dual diverse routed services to every distribution cabinet all the way back to the two Internet exchanges.
Every property has two individual and separate fibres back to the distribution cabinet, although that part is a single link.
Gigaclear follow a similar design but another major provider seems to put more complicated monopolistic requirements (by sharing a single fibre with up to 32 properties with asymmetric services) over a far simpler design. As a single fibre within a cable only costs £4 per km there can be no financial reason to share the fibre and it must surely complicate any fault-finding operations.
Kind regards,
Walter
burakkucat:
--- Quote from: waltergmw on June 03, 2017, 03:57:58 PM --- . . . but another major provide[r] seems to put more complicated monopolistic requirements (by sharing a single fibre with up to 32 properties with asymmetric services) over a far simpler design. As a single fibre within a cable only costs £4 per km there can be no financial reason to share the fibre and it must surely complicate any fault-finding operations.
--- End quote ---
Now I wonder who that could be? :hmm: :-\ :-X :angel:
WWWombat:
Interesting addition about BT ... it suggests that this wasn't targeted at B4RN, but was indeed an attempt at copper theft.
--- Quote from: waltergmw on June 03, 2017, 03:57:58 PM ---You can see the tube has a rifle-type bore to maintain an air vortex to float the cable.
--- End quote ---
Right. It looked to me that the "rifling" was actually the shape of the cable jacket to hold the 192 fibres in place. Using rifling to reduce friction and improve the airflow on blown ducting looks like an interesting idea.
--- Quote from: waltergmw on June 03, 2017, 03:57:58 PM ---More generally I should have mentioned B4RN's significant systems enhancements.
--- End quote ---
I'll come back and comment on those other matters later. Enough, for now, that B4RN dealt with this problem very efficiently.
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