Fiber optic cable in live gas lines? (Top Stories).

Sempra Fiber Links (SFL) is solving the last-mile broadband problem via natural gas pipelines. On May 8, SFL will insert one mile of fiber optic cable into Oncor's natural gas distribution lines, providing previously unavailable broadband Internet access to businesses in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

More than 90 percent of US businesses still lack broadband Internet access. This is due in part to the difficulty involved in the installation of last-mile fiber optic cable. SFL is the only company to perfect a technology that allows fiber to go into functioning natural gas pipelines. SFL's "Fiber-in-Gas" process incorporates patent-pending fittings that allow the insertion and extraction of a conduit through active natural gas pipelines. The process is safer, faster, cheaper and less disruptive than the traditional method of digging up city streets to lay fiber-optic cable. The end user gets broadband, the gas utility makes $400-per-pipe-mile in revenue and the ISP gets past the last mile.

SFL's "Fiber-in-Gas" technology is the first to be demonstrated in Gas Technology Institute's (GTI) Global Technology Transfer Alliance, a group focused on innovative natural gas-related technologies throughout the world. Oncor, TXU's energy delivery business, will deliver the broadband Internet access to the Dallas/Fort Worth area via its natural gas distribution system.

Fiber optics is a new play for Sempra Energy, an $8 billion company with 9 million customers and 12,000 employees (just last quarter, the company reported 2001 earnings of $518 million). More details on Sempra Fiber Links can be found at http:www.semprafiberlinks.com.

For more information on the May 8 demonstration build, please contact Ann Simmons, Assistant Account Executive for Weber Shandwick, 519 SW 3rd Ave. Suite 600, Portland, Oregon. E-mail: asimmons@webershandwick.com.