Facebook says its fiber-spinning robot will dramatically reduce costs

Facebook Connectivity thinks it has developed a cheaper and faster way to deploy fiber that doesn’t involve digging up streets. Instead, the company has created Bombyx, an aerial fiber-deploying robot that crawls along power lines and wraps fiber around those lines. The company envisions Bombyx being used as a middle-mile fiber solution, meaning it can bring fiber capacity to a pole mount and from there a service provider would either have to use underground fiber or wireless for the last-mile connection. Facebook Connectivity is the part of Facebook that is tasked with working on technologies and partnerships with the goal of bringing the internet to more people around the world. Its executives said Bombyx is exiting its research and development phase and the company is now looking for potential partners, such as electric utility companies. Bombyx could be deployed on electrical infrastructure anywhere in the world where communities are looking for a low-cost way to deploy fiber, including in the US. Facebook says that one of the big disadvantages faced by power companies that are currently deploying aerial fiber is that these companies typically have to interrupt the power service to homes and businesses during the process. Bombyx, however, doesn’t require that because it would wrap the power lines with fiber without human assistance.