Laying your own Cable?

[Technical Ben]

I've been thinking about the new FTTC that BT are offering and how long until it is installed here. I have decided it is not good enough. I want a 100mbps, NOW!
How much would it cost to lay my own cable I wondered? To answer, lets start simple:

On the cheap, cat5 cable could do. It has worked for many offices and businesses for decades now. At 13.10p per metre (solid core) before VAT, that's £15.39 for 100m with VAT. I'd have to add some plugs to it, at each end, so that's 15p each. This sounds very reasonable. In total, to get a 100mbps connection to my local exchange would cost me £15.69! I could use the spare change in my pocket for that. As long as BT are happy for me to plug it in directly. I will paint the cable bright yellow, so no one trips over, and hang it over the fences as I go. My neighbours will thank me for the wonderfully decorative line I have installed. They can even use it to hang up the washing, for free. But this is not enough, as I doubt my exchange could deliver me full speed through a congested pipe. I want to go to the source of the internet! So I'm going to have to aim higher.

To do that, lets times up the figures and distances. The internet appears to be routed through Peterborough before it gets to me. They must have a big exchange, internet pipe or something. So I want to plug into that. At roughly 31.13km* distance, Peterborough's link would cost me £4790.91 in cable alone! But as the cable gets longer, the signal degrades. I can only achieve my full 1000mbps connection along 100m strips. So I'm going to need repeaters at each interval of 100m, oh and those little plugs at either end to. I'll use a cheap Linksys at £4 each. Once I've plugged them into the lamp posts, traffic lights and farms buildings along the route, we have to round the distance to 32km. So that would be £6296.80 to have a direct, 1:1 contention ratio, 100mpbs internet connection. I'll put that on the Credit card and be happy!

But what if I want more? A one to one connection to the entire internet is in my reaches. If I connect to BT Tower (that thing must have the fastest connection in the country right?) it will cost me £28152.70. That's not including man hours, cable ties or materials needed to bridge the rivers and roads on the way. I'll also need to crimp an awful lot of cable². But for the price of a minor remortgage, I think it's worth it.

Once I've drawn up the plans, I will be selling them on Ebay at £28.15½p each. Then the whole thing will have paid for itself in a short while. Soon the whole country might become covered in sprawling, twisted and frayed wires. Hundreds of thousands of routers blinking in the night, leaving lights dancing across the countryside like fairies. Oh, and those little plugs at either end, there may be a shortage. But would we not have the fastest internet in Europe! All without the need of BTs infrastructure.



^{*3,113,544cm to be precise.
²1,430 plugs altogether.}

[Rik]

It gives a whole new meaning to the expression 'getting laid', Ben.

[VaderDSL]

Hehe now are you going to dig trenches or attach the cables to telephone poles? That might increase your cost by not being "as the crow flies"

[Simon]

Had to laugh, I thought the thread title referred to something else! 

[pctech]

Sheeesh!
I thought I was going networking mad.