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Back when the telecom companies were running cross-country cabling in the 80's 90's in Canada, there's a large part of the country starting about central Canada
by scohesc 5y ago
Back when the telecom companies were running cross-country cabling in the 80's 90's in Canada, there's a large part of the country starting about central Canada going east-wards that's called the Canadian Shield. It's made of _EXTREMELY_ dense rock. Cable companies had to literally make a series of controlled explosions to run cables underground or to even set communications poles in the ground.
There's a lot of factors that go into running underground cable, heck even above-ground can be problematic too!
I believe Telus buries their cross-country fiber cables at least 18 feet underground, far below anybody even coming close to excavating it, due to the sheer amount of financial damage that could be caused by a fiber cut.
- 908B64B197 5y agoThere's already a much easier path if you are going to drill coast to coast by simply going south. Plus that reuses existing infrastructure.
- Arrath 5y ago> Cable companies had to literally make a series of controlled explosions to run cables underground or to even set communications poles in the ground. Trench blasting can be expensive at times, but its not an unknown quantity for infrastructure projects[1]. That expense of installation can be weighed against, as you mention, service cuts of more vulnerable surface lines. [1]See the first video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZc2gAMxFzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZc2gAMxFzg
- garmaine 5y agoIs this a job for The Boring Company? Dig a straight hole through bedrock that can be “tapped” from the surface with a precisely positioned narrow drill, but is wide enough for human technicians to traverse in electric golf carts.
- scohesc 5y agoYou'd be looking at billions of dollars to dry and drill through that rock. It's incredibly dense. But yeah, it would be pretty cool to see done.