In late April 2020, when the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak in Denmark, Eltel was asked to connect COVID-19 testing stations in Århus and Thisted as quickly as possible. The work involved connecting temporary testing stations with fibre to provide the necessary connectivity for sending and receiving large amounts of test data to a central office for processing.
“I worked at the testing station in Thisted, which had five tents and some temporary accommodation units for staff,” says Bjarne Mortensen, fibre technician at Eltel. “We received an urgent request on the Friday morning and had installed a working fibre connection on the Sunday – in time for the station to start testing on Monday!”
Eltel develops a fibre solution
As the testing station was located in an asphalt car park, connecting it according to the original plan would have involved several days of excavation and installation. This would have delayed the opening of the testing station.
“Together with our sub-contractor, we developed an alternative solution that involved minimal excavation by running a 250-meter fibre cable from the adjacent marina,” says Mortensen. “We received approval from the customer and permission from local building owners for the solution. It was great that everyone was willing to quickly identify an optimal solution to connect the testing station.”
In the autumn, the tents at the testing station in Thisted were replaced with insulated huts. The huts use the same fibre connection to maintain good connectivity.
