The Tenerife Island Council will invest 1.543.540 euros to enhance and lay down its own ducts and fibre optics along the stretch between Santa Cruz and the Güímar Valley Industrial Estate. The Insular Councillor for Innovation, Research and Development, Juan José Martínez, explains that the final objective of this entire process, the completion of the Insular Telecommunications Ring, “allows the deployment of fiber optics to the municipalities of the island to enhance telecommunications in administrations and infrastructures, as well as to strengthen the systems and communications of points of interest in the public sector, and improve both the speed and security of the connections”.
Martínez points out that “specifically, the project currently open to the public for twenty days from the publication in the Official Gazette of the Province (BOP) last Friday, 9th, to receive the necessary allegations, will allow laying down its own channels over the 20-kilometer stretch from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to the Güímar Industrial Estate and developing the best fiber optics between these mentioned points”. Martínez explains that “we are talking about an investment of over 1.5 million euros, with the main tasks being the construction of distribution chambers, duct installation and laying of fiber optics”.
Territory
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“These actions make Tenerife one of the best-connected territories with greater capacity to provide telecommunications coverage,” says the councillor, who emphasizes: “Our challenge is to complete the entire Telecommunications Ring by 2026, which will allow us to deploy fiber optics throughout the island to substantially improve communications compared to the current ones”.
Rosa Dávila, the President of the Council, argues that “this makes us one of the best-connected territories with the capacity to provide telecommunications coverage, representing a qualitative leap”. Furthermore, Dávila concludes, “due to what it represents to complete, with this roadmap that we have outlined since our arrival at the insular government, the entire Telecommunications Ring by 2026 and thus bring fiber optics to the entire island of Tenerife”.
Routing
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The channeling route runs along the regional road TF-1 (the Southern Motorway) and goes through the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, El Rosario, Candelaria, Arafo, and Güímar. Existing chambers will be largely utilized, however, new ones will be located in the shoulder of the road to coincide with locations where interconnection is desired, especially at junctions and connections. This network should become a high-speed, smooth, and efficient link between different locations.
The project is currently in the public exposure phase for 20 days since last Friday
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Preliminary Works
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Through a soil penetration ground radar with a detection depth of no less than one meter, the locations of all underground public services must be determined in order to establish the route and correct location for the new trench. All necessary measures to ensure the safety of workers and vehicles must be taken prior to the start of the works. The areas where work is carried out must be properly cordoned off and signposted in accordance with the provisions of the approved Health and Safety Plan and, in general, with the current sector legislation. Furthermore, as it is planned to be executed at night, the work area must have sufficient lighting. When there is no existing infrastructure, the mini-trench will be executed simultaneously with the cutting of the pavement and its excavation, and more than one duct and/or pipeline may be installed in the mini-trench. The trench has dimensions of half a meter in depth and 10 centimeters in width throughout its excavation.
Ducting
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The laying of duct (pipes) will be deployed between the ends to be connected. The one used in the work will be of the brand KNET or equivalent and will be supplied in coils of the most accurate length possible in each section, in order to reduce friction for cable blowing operations. The laying of the duct and channeling is the specific action of deploying both channels directly inside the trench made. This will be carried out from a crane truck with the coils on a reel stand anchored to it. This will allow the pipe to be unrolled by the movement of the vehicle itself, so that the workers will only need to place it in the mini-trench and it will naturally settle at the bottom due to gravity.
“The works in the section consist of building distribution channels and ducting”
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Fill
In order to ensure the mechanical stability of the pipe and the canalization against traffic load, a layer of concrete will be spread in the mini-trench half a meter deep by ten centimeters wide, filling the section up to the expected driving level. This concrete will be spread using a hopper that will be dragged with an anchor to the concrete mixer, then pouring the material into the mini-trench.
Manholes
The manholes used in the work will be for fiber optic telecommunication. The installation of the manholes will be carried out at the points marked by the location plans. In the case that the cable is installed in existing manholes or chambers where space is shared with others, it will be necessary to visibly mark and identify the nature of the new one. For this purpose, identifying labels will be provided that will be installed along the cable at regular intervals. Its route will be as long as possible, trying to avoid the obstruction of future cables through the vacant ducts.
Installation
The installation of the fiber micro cable indoors will be carried out by the blowing technique, being one of the most efficient and safe ways to install fiber optic cables. To do this, a compressed air blower must be used. This is obtained from a local compressor.
The Ring
The Insular Telecommunications Ring is an infrastructure promoted by the Cabildo de Tenerife in 2011 and, due to its complexity, has had to be executed in several phases. The objective of the project is to have a terrestrial optical fiber network that allows this service to be taken to all the municipalities of the Island, an action that will benefit those population centers that still do not have this technology. It is also expected that this deployment will encourage the inhabitants of Tenerife to access more affordable prices for this service, allowing several private operators to offer it and, therefore, promote competition.
Our challenge is to have the entire Island connected to the Ring by 2026
Phase III
Phase III of the Insular Telecommunications Ring of Tenerife will allow the main perimeter ring to be connected to all the municipalities of the Island that already have optical fiber by both highways (TF-1 and TF-5). To do this, it is planned to install 128 kilometers of fiber cable at the end of the works, of which 81.5 will be located within a newly created trench excavated with a micro-trenching truck and threaded through a special telecommunications duct. The rest will be installed in existing conduits. During the works, surveillance cameras, information panels, and signaling portals will also be installed.
Utility
Optical fiber already exists in practically all 31 municipalities, but it is intended to improve the performance to achieve maximum quality. In this way, in the short term, vital and unique buildings, such as town halls, citizen service centers, or fire stations, among others, will see their communication systems reinforced, increasing bandwidth and security. Now, the third phase is culminating, and the structure will be concluded with the fourth. The Insular Telecommunications Ring will be closely linked to the self-provision network already available to the Cabildo. The goal is to optimize the deployment of fiber optics and allow the correct communication of these points of interest with the data center. The points of interest that will be connected to the Ring are 171, distributed throughout the island.
Projects
The insular ring establishes the basic infrastructure for the development of technological projects by the Cabildo that will allow, for example, increasing security on the Island in areas such as prediction and monitoring of forest fires, natural disasters, and even volcanic eruptions.
The Governing Council of the Cabildo de Tenerife approved, on the 1st, an investment of 1.5 million euros for the improvement of the Island Telecommunications Ring. At the beginning of this month, the insular executive body authorized the awarding of said works on the network to the Temporary Business Union (UTE) formed by Domaser Canaria SLU and APFutura Telecom SL. The president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, recalled that the Island Telecommunications Ring allows fiber optics to be brought to the municipalities of the Island to renew communications in administrations and public infrastructures, with the idea of reinforcing the systems of the so-called points of interest in the public sector, in addition to improving the speed and security of connections at a general level. | JDM
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