Gas-line broadband a pipe dream?

All good and well... until Telkom gets their grubby paws on it. They'll hold your house hostage and threaten to blow it up if you didn't pay your account for the month again. :eek:
 
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bwana v.18 said:
Dont you think piping everyone for gas might be a bit more expensive for the country? Its ok in the states where its so prevalent but here? Do any regions have gas?

There was a similar idea not long ago wrt sewage - if memory serves in the UK. That would be more realistic here - our current services are already pretty much Sh*t. ;)
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And what about all the water pipes we have? Some of it is now replaced by pvc, but it should still be a viable alternative.
 
Prometheus said:
And what about all the water pipes we have? Some of it is now replaced by pvc, but it should still be a viable alternative.
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Sure, why not - and as its just a conduit into the house the material doesnt matter. :)
 
Ifi remember n the UK they running cable trays and fibre in the sewers thats like a perfect delivery system sewage works to homes, hub at each sewage plant.
 
bwana v.18 said:
Sure, why not - and as its just a conduit into the house the material doesnt matter. :)
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Unfortunatly the material does matter. PVC is effectively a insulator and would be less effective than over the air. Steel and copper are conductors and are more effective than air. Imagine WiMax through water pipes. :D
 
Prometheus said:
Unfortunatly the material does matter. PVC is effectively a insulator and would be less effective than over the air. Steel and copper are conductors and are more effective than air. Imagine WiMax through water pipes. :D
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AFAIK in the UK method they used the pipes as a conduit - ie they threaded fibre through them and into the house. That's why I said the material wasn't as important.
 
If only we could discover some form of sub-space that allows signals to be sent almost instantaniously without any interference or degration of signal....:eek:

Now that would be a breakthrough :D
 
oober said:
If only we could discover some form of sub-space that allows signals to be sent almost instantaniously without any interference or degration of signal....:eek:

Now that would be a breakthrough :D
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Called quantum entanglement. The article does mention that you can not transmit any useful information across such a system. You can however transmit an encryption key which opens up the question of how it can be modified to choose which state a particle will take on and to allow it to remain entangled or to re-entagle it afterwards. The phenomenon appears to be faster than the speed of light, i.e. instantaneous, but some scientists does not believe that to be the case. Until it is proven across hugh distances we won't know for sure. There's already a theory about how to use it to actually communicate across the boundaries of time. But I can guarantee you cheap Telkom internet before any of it is even possible. ;)
 
Prometheus said:
Called quantum entanglement. The article does mention that you can not transmit any useful information across such a system. You can however transmit an encryption key which opens up the question of how it can be modified to choose which state a particle will take on and to allow it to remain entangled or to re-entagle it afterwards. The phenomenon appears to be faster than the speed of light, i.e. instantaneous, but some scientists does not believe that to be the case. Until it is proven across hugh distances we won't know for sure. There's already a theory about how to use it to actually communicate across the boundaries of time. But I can guarantee you cheap Telkom internet before any of it is even possible. ;)
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Yes I knew all that... Einstein called it the spooky effect :P But I want it Now :D darnit
 
and lets see ...

We don't even have one of these service listed "fiber-optic cable, the air, even power lines." stil stuck on stolen copper lines what a shame
 
oober said:
Yes I knew all that... Einstein called it the spooky effect :P But I want it Now :D darnit
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You'll just have to wait I guess. And even if it was possible now, the two devices still have to be in close proximity to be 'synched'. So if your internet goes down it goes down permanently and you have to make a trip to your isp. Better to wait for the cheap Telkom internet. Never thought I'd say that. :rolleyes:
 
Water itself is also a conductor. Why can't you just drop a server in a reservoir and everyone in town can have broadband internet. Or for that matter drop a server in the ocean!!!!! LOL
 
I think the issue is getting a bit clouded here. There are different kinds of conductors. Some are better at conducting heat, others electricity, while others allow propagation of radio waves. It's the last one we are concerned with here. Generally speaking any substance will slow down and degrade the propagation, including air, water (which is actually one of the worst conductors), and also all conductors.

With electrical conductors however the waves will couple to the conductor and travel along it so as to eliminate line-of-sight and you can get a signal across further distances with better signal quality. This is essentially the same principle on which WiMax functions as it varies its frequency to bend past obstacles, but it is however still very ineffective in that when it reaches an obstacle head-on it has to pass through it and will lose signal quality. Using conductors however eliminates all obstacles from the signal path.
 
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