Calif. clears plan to run telecoms in gas pipelines

California energy regulators on Thursday approved a novel plan to place fiber optic telephone and television cables inside natural gas pipelines serving homes and offices in Southern California.

The decision by the California Public Utilities Commission allows telecommuncations and cable television companies to install their lines in gas pipelines operated by Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric, subsidiaries of San Diego-based Sempra Energy.

The project is believed to be the largest application in the United States of technology merging fiber optic cable with underground gas lines, said Mike Clover, president of the Sempra Fiber Links subsidiary.

CPUC President Michael Peevey called the plan "an exciting new technology that can go the last mile to the customer" without the need to dig up the streets — especially in built-up urban areas — to install new lines.

The cable can be inserted into a tube placed inside existing underground gas lines serving homes and businesses by cutting "small incisions in the streets," Peevey said.

Sempra’s Clover said the technology has been tested in small projects in Long Beach, California, North Carolina and Texas.

Communications companies have shown interest in the technology, among them SBC Communications, AT&T, and AOL Time Warner, plus gas utilities, Clover said.

Fiber optic cable will not be inserted into large gas transmission pipelines that deliver gas to smaller distribution pipes.

Southern California Gas operates 34,400 miles of distribution gas lines and San Diego Gas & Electric 4,000 in a area extending from about Fresno in California’s Central Valley south to the California-Mexico border.

The two utilities serve a total of 6.1 million homes and businesses in Southern California.

Mike Hale, director of gas distribution for the utilities, said the CPUC’s decision covered the entire service area but set up an initial three-year trial period that limits the miles for fiber optic lines while the utilities and regulators study the service and costs.

Southern California Gas has a total 500-mile limit and San Diego Gas & Electric 27 miles over the three years.

Gas distributionlines typically run down the center of a street, with smaller "service" lines branching off to individual homes and other buildings.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-10-03-fiber-plus-gas-joke-here_x.htm