Originally published January 17 2005
Fiber optics cable from U.S. brings Internet, baseball to Tijuana
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Fiber optics from a U.S. company allows the 1.5 million citizens of Tijuana, Mexico, to watch all 145 of San Diego Padres baseball games. Just two of the 122 lines in the bundle could service all of the city’s internet needs, but the line is so important that a backup fiber optic cable is to be installed. The National Cable & Telecommunication Association says it knows of no other fiber optics cable that crosses an international border.
To install highs-epeed Inter access for the Garibaldi family in Tijuana, Cablemás installer Jesus Aguilera climbed a pole to tap into the cable.
Cablemás offers broadband Internet connections in Tijuana thanks to a deal with Cox Communications.
Less than an inch in diameter, Cox's bundle of 122 fiber-optic lines stretches across the Tijuana River Valley on utility poles before connecting to lines owned by Cablemás, a Tijuana cable TV company, just yards north of the border.
From there, the lines are fed through a pipeline 15 feet underground, running under the border and Ensenada Highway before resurfacing in Mexico.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association knows of no other cable company whose fiber-optics reach across an international border.
The connection allows Cablemás to offer Cox's Channel 4, whose programming includes 145 San Diego Padres baseball games each season.
It's popular with customers, said Gisela Cárdenas, supervisor of Cablemás' Internet business department.
"They see the Padres as their team," she said.
But the biggest boon to the company is the high-speed Internet access that Cablemás began offering two years ago.
Six years ago, there were few options for a fast connection, said telecommunications expert Alejandro Villalba, manager of Teleserviz, a Tijuana telecom company.
Instead, the two cable companies were concerned about atmospheric interference with the over-the-air television signals they were picking up from each other's countries.
The station, whose transmitter is on Mount San Antonio in Mexico, has the highest U.S. viewership of any Mexican station, Gautereaux said.
In Tijuana, students at the Colegio Mentor Mexicano, a school for first through 12th grades, are enjoying the benefits of Cox's and Cablemás' perseverance to bring high-speed access to the Net.
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