The town where I was born, Bournemouth, is to pioneer residential 100 Mbps broadband delivered via the town’s sewer network.

The project has been dubbed Fibrecity and will connect 88,000 homes in the Dorset seaside resort.  Two further Fibrecities will follow in Dundee and Northampton, with long term plans for a nationwide roll out.

The carrier undertaking the project, Merseyside-based broadband provider H2O, has already been providing fibre connectivity via the sewer network for Bournemouth and Dundee Universities.

The 360,000 miles of sewers in the UK can be used to deliver fibre connectivity directly to the consumer’s property and wave division multiplexing can be used to offer huge quantities of bandwidth at a later date.  By utilising the sewer network, H2O will avoid the lengthly wayleave process involved in civil engineering projects that involve digging up the roads and pavements.