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Comcast Corp.'s entrepreneurial spirit has reached new heights - or
literally, lows - in the upgrade of one of its recently
acquired AT&T Broadband cable systems. To be exact, Comcast has gone
underground, via the sewers, to lay fiber optic wires
in the San Francisco system without disrupting residents and
businesses with traditional trench construction.
 Using remote-controlled robots - called "SAMs," for Sewer Access
Modules - that plunged into the San Francisco sewer system,
Comcast's subcontractor CityNet Telecommunications, a last-mile fiber
optic construction company, laid 1,600 feet of fiber lines.
The process, which took a week to complete, proceeded without disruptions
of residents' daily commutes, says Andrew Johnson, Comcast's spokesman
for the system. Comcast may use the robots in the city
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again if another difficult trenching
situation presents itself, he adds.
SAM is part of Comcast's promise to get its California systems,
particularly the Bay Area system, up to par, according to a statement
from Comcast obtained by Cable World.
"We're aggressively rebuilding the cable system across this city so
that we can continue rolling out
advanced broadband services such as high-speed Internet and
high-definition television for our customers," said Nick Nocchi, the
system's area VP, in the statement. "We're pleased that CityNet was
able to
take advantage of the existing sewer infrastructure to greatly minimize
the disruption to downtown residents and businesses."
The robot system is key to the upgrade of downtown and central district
areas, says Lee Allentuck, a CityNet spokesman. While he says there
have been talks to use this robot in other Comcast systems, he would
not disclose further details.
Comcast is the first cable operator to use Citynet's fiber system. The
company has wired municipalities such as Los Angeles, Albuquerque,
N.M., and Seville, Spain.
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