Sewer robot will perform dirty work for Internet age

By VICTOR EPSTEIN

Oct. 17, 2000 (Omaha World-Herald)—Sam crawls through narrow sewers for a living, pulling slender tubes that are later filled with fiber optic cable. Fortunately, he has no sense of smell.

Sam, whose name stands for Sewer-Access Module, is a 141-pound robot that will allow Omaha's municipal sewers to serve double duty as a telecommunications network.

City officials claim that the fiber-optic cable he'll begin laying down in April will dramatically improve Internet, phone and cable television service by replacing obsolete copper wiring and coaxial cable in older buildings.

The City of Omaha signed a three-year deal last month with Sam's owner - CityNet Telecommunications Inc. - to become the first U.S. city to try the innovative practice. If successful, the new network could eliminate battles within the telecommunications industry over cable pathways, generate as much as $1 million a year for the city, and transform 1-year-old CityNet into a major corporation.

If it doesn't live up to expectations, the company's contract with the city permits either party to end the deal with two months' notice.

"Everyone in the industry is very anxious to see if this goes well in Omaha," said Lisa Pierce, a telecommunications analyst with the Giga Information Group in Cambridge, Mass. "Having a robot do a dirty job like this is very welcome."

Telecommunications analysts say the industry is closely watching Omaha and Maryland-based CityNet. The company has a one-year head start laying cable in sewers and no competition in sight, according to Jonathan Askin, general counsel for the Association for Local Telecommunications Services - a Washington, D.C., trade group.

The demand for high-speed communication networks has grown exponentially in the past year due to growing transmissions of space hungry video files. Some 2.7 billion files with streaming video were sent over the Internet in May, up from 99 million in August 1999, according to CityNet representatives.

"This is a brilliant idea," Askins said. "There are huge legal battles over right-of-way for cable networks in urban areas, and the sewer lines ... represent untapped right-of-way."

The obstacle to running cable through sewers always has been their size. The feeder pipes that run into most buildings are about 18 inches in diameter. Sam is 6.3-inches wide and 5.9-inches high, and can operate in pipes as small as 8 inches in diameter.

The robot looks a bit like a cylindrical vacuum cleaner and creeps through sewers on a set of small wheels. Every few feet, it fastens a ring to the inside of the pipes. Then, after a change of accessories, Sam pulls three conduits through the pipes, jamming them upward into brackets set in the rings.

A sheath of fiber-optic cable is then blown into each conduit with compressed air. Each sheath contains 72 individual fiber-optic strands. Four strands contain enough capacity to simultaneously carry traditional phone calls from every one of Omaha's 380,000 residents.

CityNet's sewer network is expected to produce state-of-the-art communications infrastructure for Omaha in combination with the telephone switching computers already in place to support Offutt Air Force Base. It will create three fiber-optic rings: one downtown, one in the area around Eppley Airfield, and a third in west Omaha.

CityNet won't be the first company to provide fiber-optic service in Omaha, but it will be the first to provide a means of replacing copper wire that leads into older buildings that is both acceptable to building owners and cost-effective. Those remaining stretches of copper wire are a weak link in most networks referred to within the industry as "the last mile."

Copper wires slow down high-speed fiber-optic networks, which are nearly four times as fast. Still, most building owners aren't anxious to have their walls torn out to replace copper wires that lead into their buildings.

Entering buildings through their sewer pipes solves the problem, according to CityNet.

"I love sewer pipes," said Bob Berger, CityNet's president and chief executive officer. "They give us a uniform pathway that lets us go anywhere without tearing up the streets."

Similar networks already have been installed by Sam robots in five European cities, according to Berger, including Berlin and Hamburg, Germany. CityNet is the first company to introduce the idea in the United States and was created last year with that purpose in mind. Omaha will be CityNet's first installation.

The privately held company received $100 million in venture capital in April and already has ordered and paid for 38 of the Sam robots, which are produced by a Swiss company called Ka-Te Insituform AG.

The robots cost about $750,000 each. CityNet plans to buy 100 of the machines.

CityNet signed a second deal with the city of Albuquerque, N.M., this month and has tentative agreements with St. Paul, Minn., and Providence, R.I. It's also negotiating with 18 other cities, according to Berger.

The CityNet deal guarantees Omaha 2.5 percent of the gross revenue generated by the fiber-optic network, which is expected by Mayor Hal Daub to total as much as $1 million a year.

Daub and Berger first discussed the idea at a National League of Cities meeting a few months back. Daub was sold on the technology, particularly in the downtown area where so many historic buildings have been restored. Berger was sold on the idea of using the robot for the first time in Omaha by the city's abundance of switching computers.

The switches serve as data accumulation points and a shortage of them also can slow a telecommunications network, even one that has replaced the copper wires in its "last mile" with fiber-optic cable.

"Omaha has more switching capacity than any other city in the country and they form the backbone of a tremendous high-tech community," said Berger, who worked for Omaha-based Metropolitan Fiber System Inc. in the 1990s.

MFS was formed in 1987 and taken over by Mississippi-based WorldCom Inc. in 1996.

Berger's latest venture, CityNet, provides so-called "dark cable" that is then "lit" by its customers - local telecommunications companies, such as Cox Communications.

CityNet's entry into the Nebraska telecommunications market comes at an interesting time, with several local companies involved in a lawsuit over access to existing wires before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case pits the former Bell telephone entity US West - now Qwest Communications International Inc. - against newer companies that want to use its lines.

Qwest wants them to pay more than the rate set by the Nebraska Public Service Commission. It's an important issue for new companies because most building owners won't allow their walls to be torn up for the installation of duplicate lines.

Running cables through sewers, instead of the ground, takes less than half the time and also is cheaper and less disruptive to the surrounding community, according to experts. So, Sam may provide an alternative to both right-of-way court battles and entrenching costs that average nearly $1 million a mile in downtown areas, according to Gerry Lederer, a vice president with the Building Owners and Management Association International, in Washington, D.C.

"What they're offering could be a huge improvement," Lederer said. "They may have found a viable alternative to digging up the streets."

The only drawback to the CityNet system, according to Lederer, is that it has no discernible advantage over fixed wireless systems, which use rooftop transmitters to beam data signals to satellites via microwave. CityNet disputes that, pointing out that their system is more reliable and less susceptible to weather and other airborne signals.

If successful, CityNet could pose another problem by creating a de facto monopoly, not unlike the local telephone service monopoly formerly enjoyed by US West. Berger has voluntarily registered CityNet as a carrier with the State Public Service Commission to address that concern and ensure that it is subject to state regulation. He said he plans to be part of Omaha's future and wants to be a good corporate citizen.

"Communications networks are infrastructure, just like roads," Berger said. "As the city grows we can plan for additional mini- rings in conjunction with the city's master plan."Sam the Sewer Robot: Installing Fiber OpticsThe Sewer-Access Module prepares sewer lines for fiber optics during multiple passes through the lines. The robot is 6 inches wide and weighs 141 pounds.Step 1: Using a digital camera the robot examines and maps the city's sewer system.Step 2: Rings made of a titanium steel alloy are inserted flush against the sewer walls.Step 3: Specially designed tubes, or conduit, are pushed into clips attached to the rings.Step 4: Fiber optic cable is threaded through the conduit.