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Back to the future for 21CN
Wednesday August 06th 2008. Posted: 08:00
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BT had to get permission to bring ashore the cable close to the site of a Neolithic village
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BT has successfully completed work on laying a new fibre optic submarine cable between Orkney and the Scottish mainland after being granted permission to take the link close to one of Europe’s most important archaeological sites.
The laying of the 70km cable from Dunnet Bay, around five miles east of Thurso, under the Pentland Firth to Skaill Bay in Orkney, has brought BT’s 21st century network (21CN) platform a step closer to the Northern Isles of Scotland. It is part of a significant investment by BT in the new network in Scotland and the replacement of equipment in more than 1,000 exchanges across the nation. BT Design marine engineering manager Richard Hill said that, to complete the cable laying to Orkney, BT had to gain permission from a number of parties, including Historic Scotland and the county archaeologist on Orkney, as the cable lands adjacent to Skara Brae - Europe’s oldest Neolithic village and a World Heritage site. The negotiations meant that BT was able to take the cable close to the site of the settlement, which was inhabited between 3200 BC and 2200 BC. Richard said: “We wanted to bring the cable ashore at a point where we could achieve greatest burial in the sand, which is constantly moving on this beach depending on where the weather is coming from, and so we had to revise our original plans for where we intended to bring the cable ashore. “The best position was quite close to Skara Brae but the site has a high level of environmental and archaeological protection. “Following discussions with all the relevant authorities, we were given permission to land close to the Skara Brae site, and to cut a trench through the adjacent field to our manhole. “However, due to the sensitivities of the site, our trench was less a dig and more an archaeological excavation, with constant monitoring by the local county archaeologist. During the work two Victorian drains and a wall were uncovered, and these were reinstated over the cable after it had been installed.” This wasn’t the only difficulty the team had to overcome. Undersea cable laying operations had to be temporarily suspended after the cable ship developed engine problems and had to sail to Newcastle for repairs. Richard said: “It wasn’t too much of a blow and it actually suited us in a way because it gave us time to move the landing site.” BT’s 21CN programme is designed to remove duplication across the existing multiple networks and systems to create a single, converged multi-service internet protocol-based network. It will allow users to customise, personalise and change a growing range of advanced new converged services in real time. Nearly 60 exchanges in the Scottish islands, from the largest to the smallest, will have existing equipment removed and replaced with 21CN equipment, giving every exchange - no matter how remote - the same capability as a city centre exchange. BT has also reached agreement with Faroese Telecom to share part of a new fibre optic submarine cable which has been laid between the Faroe Islands, Orkney and Shetland, and the Scottish mainland. 21CN is fundamental to BT's transformation to a global, open and real-time communications services business. Through flexible platforms, 21CN will help BT meet its customers' evolving communications needs.
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Last updated:
09:55