Southern Water taps fiber network to sniff out leaky pipes

UK utility provider Southern Water is turning fiber-optic telecoms cables into underground sensors in an effort to find leaks in its water network. The privatized biz is trialing tech from Lightsonic that uses Openreach's fiber network to detect leaking pipes. Openreach - BT's infrastructure arm - and Affinity Water, which supplies parts of southern England, tested the system in March. As The Register reported at the time, the system analyzes tiny changes in light traveling through fiber-optic cables to detect vibrations caused by nearby underground leaks. Machine learning helps distinguish those signals from traffic, roadworks and other background noise, and estimates where the water is escaping. Lightsonic says the resulting location...

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