Sep, 2001 : Ottawa to Run Information Highway Through Sewers
📅 - City of Ottawa Mayor Robert Chiarelli yesterday announced that the city has signed a Sewer Access Agreement with Stream Intelligent Networks Corp (stream.ca). Stream's STAR (Sewer Telecommunications Access by Robot) technology will be used, instead of traditional open-trench construction, to install the first leg of a new fibre-optic telecommunications network in Ottawa's downtown core. It's the latest step in Stream's strategy to make dark fibre easily accessible totelecommunications carriers and high-volume enterprise customers in majorurban centres across Canada.
Ottawa, which has become known as "Silicon Valley North," is urgently inneed of a high-speed, high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastructure tosupport a rapidly expanding high-tech industry. Digging up the city'sstreets to lay the necessary cable, however, has created road damage as wellas irritating interruptions for businesses, residents and publictransportation. STAR, which uses a remote control robot to lay fibre-opticcable in existing sewers, is faster than construction, so service isprovided to carriers and enterprises quickly and local disruption isminimized.
In fact, the average time to plan, design and install fibre using Stream'sSTAR is typically one and a half to two months, compared with the 11 or 12months it takes to deploy a comparable length of fibre using open trenchconstruction. STAR is also 30 to 60 per cent less expensive.
In addition, unlike construction, STAR causes no expensive short- orlong-term damage to roads - a bill that is ultimately paid by taxpayers.
"A study commissioned by the City of Ottawa on the subject of utilitytrenching told us that the life of road pavement is reduced by over 32 percent in areas where pavement has been compromised by construction," saidChiarelli. "STAR permits the city to eliminate those on-going repair costs,rapidly install the telecommunications infrastructure our institutions,corporate and private citizens demand, and do it without the intrusiveconstruction that has been so disruptive to traffic and to business.Everybody wins."
This is possible because STAR's remote-controlled robot deploys fibre-opticcable through the municipality's sewer system. The cable-laying robot, whichis about 1.8 metres long and equipped with five television cameras tomonitor operations, is fed into the sewer through manholes. It can operatein pipes as narrow as 200 millimetres (eight inches) in diameter.
"Stream's STAR technology is proving to have an enormous appeal tocommunities faced with extensive fibre-optic network installations and theresultant cost and inconvenience to taxpayers," said Steve Spooner,president and CEO of Stream. "Until now, they've been caught between theexploding demand for telecommunications and the outrage of citizens caughtin perpetual traffic jams or whose businesses have suffered from roadclosures. With STAR, however, access to the information highway no longercomes at the expense of our streets."
Ottawa, which has become known as "Silicon Valley North," is urgently inneed of a high-speed, high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastructure tosupport a rapidly expanding high-tech industry. Digging up the city'sstreets to lay the necessary cable, however, has created road damage as wellas irritating interruptions for businesses, residents and publictransportation. STAR, which uses a remote control robot to lay fibre-opticcable in existing sewers, is faster than construction, so service isprovided to carriers and enterprises quickly and local disruption isminimized.
In fact, the average time to plan, design and install fibre using Stream'sSTAR is typically one and a half to two months, compared with the 11 or 12months it takes to deploy a comparable length of fibre using open trenchconstruction. STAR is also 30 to 60 per cent less expensive.
In addition, unlike construction, STAR causes no expensive short- orlong-term damage to roads - a bill that is ultimately paid by taxpayers.
"A study commissioned by the City of Ottawa on the subject of utilitytrenching told us that the life of road pavement is reduced by over 32 percent in areas where pavement has been compromised by construction," saidChiarelli. "STAR permits the city to eliminate those on-going repair costs,rapidly install the telecommunications infrastructure our institutions,corporate and private citizens demand, and do it without the intrusiveconstruction that has been so disruptive to traffic and to business.Everybody wins."
This is possible because STAR's remote-controlled robot deploys fibre-opticcable through the municipality's sewer system. The cable-laying robot, whichis about 1.8 metres long and equipped with five television cameras tomonitor operations, is fed into the sewer through manholes. It can operatein pipes as narrow as 200 millimetres (eight inches) in diameter.
"Stream's STAR technology is proving to have an enormous appeal tocommunities faced with extensive fibre-optic network installations and theresultant cost and inconvenience to taxpayers," said Steve Spooner,president and CEO of Stream. "Until now, they've been caught between theexploding demand for telecommunications and the outrage of citizens caughtin perpetual traffic jams or whose businesses have suffered from roadclosures. With STAR, however, access to the information highway no longercomes at the expense of our streets."
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