Tag Archives: Internet Backbone

A house that isn’t a house.

Cable landing stations come in various forms. Mainly industrial buildings but here is one on a housing estate hidden inside two houses. The inner walls and floors have been removed to house the fibre terminating equipment. The four large air con units outside give it away. The garage houses the backup generator.

A house that isn’t a house !
Large air con units outside.
Hard to spot driving past.
Its a Cable Landing Station.
In disguise.
With a generator in the garage.
Fibre cable ducts in the road outside.
Fibre cable ducts in the road outside.

Proposed Equipment Building Plan

Proposed Equipment Building Plan

Data Centers in Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes has a number of Data Centres. The Linford Wood area seems to have a particular concentration of data processing companies, data centres, fibre cables and data connectivity providers.

My Mapped Data Centers ( work in progress )

MK Data Vault Survey Document

MK Data Vault Glossy

Unisys in Sunrise Parkway.
Safenames in Sunrise Parkway.
Hughes in Rockingham Drive.
Pulsant in Rockingham Drive.
Pulsant in Rockingham Drive.
Linford Wood Area.
Linford Wood Area.
Bletchley Area.
BT Data Centre Bletchley.
MKDC-1 HOST-IT Data Center.
MKDC-0 HOST-IT Data Center.
MKDC-0 HOST-IT Data Center.

The Secrets of Cornwall by Mark Thomas.

This video fuelled my interest in a more detailed search for the hidden buildings and ducts that make up the Internet Backbone of the UK.

Watched this video several hundred times pausing and following Mark’s journey mapping the sites he visited. Also used a number of sources like Secret Bases and Internet Maps to map other interesting sites. Some sites were found by endlessly and painfully zooming and scrolling Google Maps !

I have made up several KML files locating each these sites and the route of the GTN and other fibre cables.

My Mapped Points Of The Internet Backbone ( work in progress )

Skewjack Farm – SoC 16:45
Skewjack Farm – SoC 16:45
Skewjack Farm – SoC 16:45
Skewjack Farm – SoC 16:45
Skewjack Farm – SoC 16:45
Possible Cable Route from Skewjack to Unoccupied Building GHCQ ?
BT Lands End – SoC 20:55
BT Lands End – SoC 20:55
Virgin Media Rodricks Farm – SoC 22:00
Virgin Media Rodricks Farm – SoC 22:00
Virgin (NTL) Interconnect SoC 22:00
Verizon Relay Station – Soc 22:30
Verizon Relay Station – Soc 22:30
Verizon Relay Station – Soc 22:30
Verizon Relay Station – Soc 22:30
Verizon Relay Station – Soc 22:30
Verizon Relay Station – Soc 22:30
Verizon Relay Station MHC – Soc 22:47
Verizon Relay Station MHC – Soc 22:47
Verizon Relay Station MHC – Soc 22:47
Verizon Relay Station MHC – Soc 22:47
Whitesands Cable Landing Station – SoC 23:50
Whitesands Cable Landing Station– SoC 23:50
Whitesands Cable Landing Station– SoC 23:50
Sennen Cove Cable.
BT Sennen Cove – SoC 24:20
Possible Cable Routes from Porthcurno to Whitesands CLS.
Multiple MHC – SoC 26:04
Multiple MHC – SoC 26:04
Connect Sands UK-Spain Locked MHC 2 – SoC 33:25
Pentewan Locked MHC TAT-14 – SoC 36:58
Pentewan Locked MHC Close Up 2 TAT-14 – SoC 36:58
Cable & Wireless Fraddon Map – SoC 40:06
India Queens Virgin Media – SoC 40:40
India Queens Level 3 – SoC 40:40
GTN Black Cross – SoC 41:17
GTN Black Cross – SoC 41:27
Decommisioned TAT3 & TAT8 Cable Landing Station & Bunker Widmouth Bay
Widmouth Bay TAT3 TAT8 CLS – SoC 42:48
Widmouth Bay TAT3 TAT8 CLS – SoC 43:00
Widmouth Bay TAT3 TAT8 CLS Bunker – SoC 43:02
Apollo North CLS – SoC 44:23
Valley Truckle MHC – SoC 42:28
Valley Truckle MHC – SoC 42:30
Widmouth Bay TAT3 TAT8 CLS – SoC 42:45
Widmouth Bay TAT3 TAT8 CLS Bunker – SoC 42:49
Widmouth Bay TAT3 TAT8 CLS – SoC 42:56
Widmouth Bay MHC Locked – SoC 44:05
Apollo North CLS – SoC 45:30
Apollo North CLS – SoC 45-:39
Verizon Bude – SoC 46:01
Surf Telecom – SoC 47:12
Western Power Distribution & Serf Telecom.
Western Power Distribution & Serf Telecom.
Western Power Distribution & Serf Telecom.
Western Power Distribution & Serf Telecom.
Western Power Distribution & Serf Telecom.
Level 3 CLS Gate – SoC 47:39
GCHQ Sign – SoC 49:34
Hiberian Express Vacuum Cable Repeater – SoC 52:44
Cable Landing Station at Dumpton Gap.
Virgin Media at Southern Cemetery Manchester.
Virgin Media in Odd Down, Bath.
Virgin Media in Staple Hill, Bristol.
Virgin Media in Staple Hill, Bristol
Virgin Media Switching Centre Bradley Stoke, Bristol

Fibre Repeater Sites

Collected from a number of sources like Secret Bases and Internet Maps and some were painfully located on Google Maps by endlessly zooming and scrolling !

Tata (Tycom) Repeater site at South Molton.
Tata (Tycom) Repeater site at South Molton.
Tata (Tycom) Repeater site at South Molton.
Tata (Tycom) Repeater site at South Molton.
Verizon (Worldcom) repeater site at South Molton.
Repeater BT Saxton UK-Germany-5 from Winterton
Zayo fibre optic relay near Preston, Lancashire.
Zayo fibre optic relay Cheddleton, Staffordshire.
Zayo fibre optic relay in Llandygai near Bangor.
Zayo fibre optic relay at Holyhead, Anglesey.
A fibre optic relay Chelmsford, Essex.
Fibre optic relay in Chelmsford, Essex.
A fibre optic relay near Ipswich, Suffolk.
Zayo fibre optic relay near Kendal, The Lake District.
A fibre optic relay at Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
A fibre optic relay in Northumbria.
A fibre optic relay near Glasgow in Scotland.
Zayo fibre optic relay near Dalkeith, Scotland.

SMBT Fenny Stratford Exchange / Bletchley (MK) – bRAS

Took a trip out to investigate our local bRAS building.

BT Wholesale has ten 20/21CN bRAS which are located at Birmingham, Bletchley (MK), Ealing, Edinburgh, Ilford, Kingston, Manchester, Reading, Sheffield, Faraday. If your ISP uses BT Wholesale for routing then you can be sure that all your traffic will have passed through one of the above bRAS locations.

There are a large number of network companies present at this site as indicated by the network chamber covers outside in the street.

My Mapped BT Exchanges ( work in progress )

My Mapped Eire Telecom Exchanges ( work in progress )

Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Norweb Communications  Ltd
Norweb Communications  Ltd
W-COM Internet
W-COM Internet
Vtesse Networks Ltd
Vtesse Networks Ltd
Energis Communications Limited
Atlantic Telecom
Atlantic Telecom
Ipsaris Ltd now Marconi
Ipsaris Ltd now Marconi
Ipsaris Ltd now Marconi
Fibrenet Global Ltd
Fibrenet Global Ltd
186k Ltd now Zayo
186k Ltd now Zayo
186k Ltd now Zayo
Telecential Communications Ltd now Comtel
Telecential Communications Ltd now Comtel
KCL KCOM Group Ltd
CATV
Vodafone
Vodafone

Submarine Cables & Landing Stations

The physical connectivity of the Internet is of great fascination to me. From Submarine Cables and Cable Landing Stations to fibre ducts running up and down the country between Exchanges and POPs.

From under the sea and beach…
…into ducts in the sand…
…and underground chambers…
…under the roads…
..to Cable Landing Stations.
Terminating…
…inside…
…into racks…
…of switches…
…and routers.