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From: lindsay@kelpie.newcastle.ac.UK ("Lindsay F. Marshall")
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Bioproduced nanocomputers
Message-ID: <2577.8711231012.kelpie@uk.ac.newcastle>
Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 05:12:57 EST
Article-I.D.: uk.2577.8711231012.kelpie
Posted: Mon Nov 23 05:12:57 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Nov-87 23:29:54 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE17RU
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In article <2375@sfsup.UUCP> you write:
>I can easily imagine stringing fiber could be as cheap as the coax for
>cable (is it already?),

Sadly stringing fibre is one of the most expensive things that you can
think of. Fibre simply is'nt robust enough yet, nor easy enough to join
and so has to be buried in trenches that are much deeper than those for
other services so that when the people from the power/gas/water
companies come to do something they don't rip right through the fibre.
It may be that the USA is better set up for this kind of thing (i.e.
services in ducts rather than just holes in the ground), but in Europe
the cost of such global cabling is absolutely prohibitive - hence the
lack of success of cable TV in the UK, let alone fibre data lines!!

Lindsay