Once that is done, the crew hand-feeds optical fibre through the conduit. SAM can lay about 182 to 273 metres of cable a night, including mapping, rings and conduits. SAM works at night because although it does not dig up the streets, the crew must block off the manhole with traffic cones. Bob Berger, CityNet's chief executive, is a telecommunications lawyer who serves on the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. But that was a one-city solution.
Every building has one.
Berger formed CityNet in the autumn of 1999. He found SAM at Ka-Te System AG, the Zurich company that developed it for the sewer revitalisation business. Though designed specifically for fibre-optics installation, SAMs descend from a generation of robots built for grinding and other sewer rehabilitation work. Albuquerque is the world's third city to use robots to install commercial fibre. Omaha, Nebraska, and Indianapolis have signed agreements for installations later this year.