Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Monkeys Can't Stop Eating India's Delicious Fiber Optic Cables


By Ashley Feinberg

(Gizmodo)  Right now, India’s in the middle of launching a massive, $18 billion plan to finally bring the country’s shoddy internet up to speed. There’s just one little problem: Adorable monkeys just can’t stop eating its delicious, delicious data cables.

Specifically, its the 3,000 year-old holy city of Varanasi that’s having the hardest time getting an internet overhaul, since its many temples are home to hordes of (presumably) hungry, tech-hating macaque monkeys. And since the monkeys are seen as sacred, chasing them away is apparently out of the question. As a communications engineer for the project told Reuters:
We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires.
The team even had to replace some of the wires less than two-months after they were installed because those goddamn monkeys couldn’t help themselves.

While the engineers are currently looking for alternative, prospects are bleak. According to Reuters, “The city of over 2 million people is impossibly crowded and laying underground cable is out of the question.”

Another option? Stop making such delicious cables. [Reuters]
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