back to article How fast is a piece of string? Boffin shoots ADSL signal down twine

An experiment by staff at UK ISP Andrews & Arnold has redefined the meaning of a fibre connection by showing that a piece of wet string can handle ADSL. Our anonymous hero* got the idea for the experiment from a joke that ADSL signal could operate over wet string. Although telephone signals have been successfully passed …

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  1. Stumpy

    The irony here being that 3.5Mb/s is still faster than some domestic broadband here in Britain...

    1. horse of a different color

      I'm pretty sure that BT already uses wet string for it's rural broadband infrastructure.

      1. PM from Hell
        Megaphone

        Wet Aluminium & FTTV

        A great deal of discussion has taken place recently about the benefits and costs of Fibre To The Cabinet vs Fibre To The Home. I'm making a plea here for BT to upgrade the remaining 'wet aluminium' links still present in many rural communities with Fibre To The Village( FTTV). I'm fortunate that the village I live in received a fib re connection 2 years earlier than scheduled and we no longer lose service when the village duck pond overflows, but there are hundreds of communities still in that position. I'm still delighted to get 17mbps rather than the 1.5 - 2 mbps I used to receive. Video on demand is now just that rather than a download service which would deliver a watchable film after a couple of hours waiting (or in one case 24 hours)

    2. Ryan 7

      Only if you're 2 metres from the exchange.

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Dont you mean the haberdashery?

      2. hplasm
        Happy

        Only if you're 2 metres from the exchange.

        Nobody is - hence the slow speeds...

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Salt water...

          It's powered by the tears of BT customers.

    3. Neil Davies 1

      Not necessarily - they haven’t yet claimed they can get a working PPP session over string-net yet

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      3.5Mb/s is still faster than some domestic broadband here in Britain

      It's faster than my domestic broadband here in France as well, Britain doesn't have a monopoly on slow DSL.

      1. bob, mon!
        Mushroom

        ADSL slow? Shurely not!

        Here in the wilds of Pennsylvania, two hours west of NYC, I'm getting well over 200 KBps on downloads - so better than 1.6Mb/s for short bursts. LUXURY. Thank you, Verizon!

        1. StargateSg7

          Re: ADSL slow? Shurely not!

          With Telus here in Vancouver, Canada I'm regularly getting about 135 megabits download

          and 110 megabits upload on a home fibre ADSL line for about 85 Canadian Dollars a month

          for 500 gigabytes per month. If they move me to a higher tier for about 135 dollars per month

          I can get Full Gigabit over Fibre ADSL in the multi-Terabytes per month allowed upload/download range.

          Me thinks BT needs to upgrade their network because even with WIRELESS phone-based internet

          I'm getting 15 megabits download and about 4 megabits upload...soooooo.....WHAT IS WITH

          BRITISH TELECOM that your ADSL lines are so bad?

          1. Griffo

            Re: ADSL slow? Shurely not!

            If you are getting those speeds, you are not using ADSL. The term "Fibre ADSL" is an oxymoron. I'd suggest it's a marketing term dreamed up by someone at your provider.

            The maximum theoretically achievable download speed on ADSL is 24mbits on ADSL2+

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_digital_subscriber_line#ADSL_standards

            1. StargateSg7

              Re: ADSL slow? Shurely not!

              I actually do know the difference between copper-based ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and the SDSL Telus Fibre 150, which is supposed to be TRULY SYMMETRICAL with the SAME 150 megabits upload and download speeds but that never actually happens. It's typically 135 download and about 110 upload which is GREAT for my Skype videophone sessions which give me truly Hi-Def imagery but useless for most web surfing because of websites that DELAY content until 3rd party ads are displayed which can be MANY SECONDS! Download/upload speeds are actually pretty meaningless for most users on today's websites since LATENCY (i.e. the time between responses for server vs client) is a more important measure.

              I can have One Gigabit Ethernet DSL (which is one of the network types I have at work!) but it is USELESS if the websites I surf take XX-number of milliseconds or seconds to respond my input!

              NBCnews and CNN are some of the worst where their ads take soooo long to download from third party servers/responders that it effectively BLOCKS my fast access to those websites.

              ---

              For those those of you who can afford it, I would try OC-768 (OC = Optical Carrier) which are three STM-256 lines aggregated together running at almost 40,000 Megabits (or about 5 Gigabytes per Second!) And YES you CAN play networked games on it BEAAAAUUUUTIFULLY as me and my colleagues have soooo aptly demonstrated after hours !!!!

              ---

              For some engineering fun, you can also paint lines on yourself using conductive bodypaint to make network connections between on-body/wearable computing systems. if you use microvolts at milliamps so you don't interfere with your heart or brain functions (i.e. using the Skin Effect). You can light up your on-body microservers. I remember that from a student project I got to look at during a demo at our local university.

          2. Degenerate Scumbag

            Re: ADSL slow? Shurely not!

            I enjoy the looks on people's faces when I tell them that in Budapest I get 1Gbps down / 200Mbps up for less than £12 GBP per month.

            1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

              Re: ADSL slow? Shurely not!

              I enjoy the looks on people's faces when I tell them that in Budapest I get 1Gbps down / 200Mbps up for less than £12 GBP per month.

              So only 6x the minimum wage then, equivalent to £42/month in the UK?

          3. The_Idiot

            Re: ADSL slow? Shurely not!

            @StargateSG7

            Should I mention (Canada, yes, Vancouver, no) my own supply?

            256Mbps

            Symetric

            Uncapped

            $50 per month?

            Ah. You're right. I probably shouldn't... (blush). Or that if I felt like spending $100 a month, I could get the same symetric uncapped at 1 Gbps...

  2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "string (which The Register can reveal was bought on eBay)"

    So this ISP stuff is just money for old rope?

    I was expecting mechanical transfer of data with a couple of tin cans to add voice transmission.

    1. dave 81

      >I was expecting mechanical transfer of data with a couple of tin cans to add voice transmission.

      Me too, disappointed.

      1. My other car is an IAV Stryker
        Boffin

        I actually would like to take a couple of transducers and find the best frequencies for string transmission. It could pulse on/off, pulse the frequency high/low...

        But at longer lengths the frequencies would surely drift too low and might get lost in noise from the mains grid (60 Hz here, 50 at Vulture Central), especially if they shared poles. (And then the wind might be a factor, too.)

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          "And then the wind might be a factor, too."

          That'll be the Brussels sprouts.

        2. Muscleguy
          Boffin

          With normal string I would worry that heavy traffic (stop heavy breathing over there!) would cause the string to self combust with the heat.

          One big advantage of glass fibre (Virgin here, satisfied) is the melting point of glass is pretty high ;-)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            (Virgin here, satisfied)

            ...no comment...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      couple of tin cans

      I believe we've done a wireless connection with that I believe in our office, sadly the marketing wonks at the time didn't seize on the opportunity like our colleagues from the article :)

    3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      "I was expecting mechanical transfer of data with a couple of tin cans"

      That's the "Next Generation Broadband" project.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: the "Next Generation Broadband" project.

        I thought that was dependent on how many DVD's you can fit in the USS Enterprise...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If the engineer has a quiet moment...

    Could he pop round and put some more salt water on the piece of string linking my home to the exchange?

    Thanks

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

      Very vague memory that there was a phone system in the UK that used the actual physical earth as the return leg of the current for the local loop. IIRC if the phone played up then people had to water the ground stake.

      I don't think I am confusing it with mains electricity delivered that way.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

        @ ac ..

        "Very vague memory that there was a phone system in the UK that used the actual physical earth as the return leg of the current for the local loop. IIRC if the phone played up then people had to water the ground stake."

        Yes, some of the very early ones. They had to change due to interference from passing trams etc. Railways did too for some of their point to point phones.

        The "watering the ground stake" came later. the earth was used when you shared a line with a neighbour. (shared service) The bell ringing current and the "call exchange" button would use it.

        1. Elmer Phud

          Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

          "Shared Service"

          Not enough line plant to go round.

          Two lines -one pair, switched by earth return to exchange

          (Oh, the memories)

          1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

            Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

            Not enough line plant to go round.

            Two lines -one pair, switched by earth return to exchange

            The demise of party lines is one of the often-forgotten benefits of privatisation and subsequent investment.

            1. elDog

              Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

              And the natural extension from the party line --> single household line --> multiple land-lines per resident --> cell phones for every kid --> IoT!

              And in the end, the amount of real information exchanged stays the same.

              1. Primus Secundus Tertius

                Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

                @elDog

                But the noise to signal ratio is enormously bigger.

            2. Adam 52 Silver badge

              Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

              "The demise of party lines is one of the often-forgotten benefits of privatisation and subsequent investment."

              BT was privatised in 1984. System X rollout was 1980 to 1990, so halfway complete before privatisation.

              Compare that to the mess that is 21CN and the billions of public subsidy for the FTTC rollout.

      2. Shez

        Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

        you might be thinking of a ground start, which is where to signal to the exchange that the line has gone off hook, the phone briefly connects the ring wire to ground so the exchange can detect the current passing.

      3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

        "there was a phone system in the UK that used the actual physical earth as the return leg of the current for the local loop."

        I still have most of a 1000' reel of gov. surplus plastic covered steel wire that I think was used for military telephones in that way. We could use it by splitting a pair of high impedance phones and using one earpiece at each end as both microphone and receiver. It's been sitting around in various garages since the 50s and still snip bits off as garden wire.

      4. Gnomalarta
        Thumb Up

        Re: If the engineer has a quiet moment...

        "The Michie Phone (pronounced "mickey" - named for the Australian who invented it) is another type of custom-built cave telephone system using only a single wire with a high-impedance earth return. These sealed, compact units are currently used for cave rescue communication in Australia and New Zealand, and a similar Single Wire Telephone system was developed in the United Kingdom. These relatively compact and lightweight systems have been used for caving expeditions around the world. Michie Phones are no longer commercially produced, and these single wire systems will not work with two-wire field telephones."

        https://fieldphone.blogspot.co.uk/

  4. David Webb

    Chaos

    Is this the mystical String Theory?

  5. AS1
    Coffee/keyboard

    Caffeine high?

    Salt water is OK for a marine environment, but in an office environment, coffee would be more easily obtained. (Schools could use energy drinks as the students always seem to have a Red-y supply of that.)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Caffeine high?

      If you are thinking I'm wasting my coffee on office infrastructure, you've another thing coming.....unless it's this rancid emergency Nescafe I'm enduring.

      1. DJV Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Caffeine high?

        What is this "thing" that's coming? I "think" you should definitely tell us!

        1. Mephistro
          Happy

          Re: Caffeine high?

          One hint, please:

          Is it hard?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Caffeine high?

            Only during the Christmas party.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Caffeine high?

        > If you are thinking I'm wasting my coffee on office infrastructure

        Probably best to use it "post-consumer"...

      3. Swiss Anton

        Re: Caffeine high?

        Once its been recycled (as it were) I'd have no problem using what's left of my finest Arabica to moisten the string. Though I'd suggest using a pot shaped container to collect the fluid. I wouldn't recommend applying the fluid directly to the string, just in case someone makes a call and it activates the ringer, but then again, if that's your thing, go for it.

    2. Velv
      Childcatcher

      Re: Caffeine high?

      Never underestimate the bandwidth of sending the office gossip for the coffee every day...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah

    If you add two baked bean tins at either end it will increase the SNR and give more megabits...

  7. Alistair
    Windows

    I suppose the next question is - was the carrier in question limply or tightly strung? Was it bakers or butchers twine? Or even baling twine? Curious minds and all...

    1. Andytug

      Also...

      Was it a twisted pair?

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

        Re: Also...

        You think it might handle 10mbs?

      2. Pompous Git Silver badge

        Re: Also...

        Was it a twisted pair?
        No, but the two engineers involved were...

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