In reply to a post by Sean_123:

Yes its only the thin white inner sheath that pops through internal wall totally unsupported or protected and bent through a tighter radius than I would have chosen! But strangely its much thicker a bit of black fibre that goes through the external wall which they reckon they had just spliced onto the end of the fly lead.

That's an inside-out cable, the black jacket is stripped off to provide the required length of internal cable

https://dexgreen.com/products/fiber-optic-inside-out...

Assuming the CSP is at ground level, any reason why they can't run cable outside the house up to first floor level and have ONT inside at first floor level ?

I think we can ignore master phone sockets, as we'll be moving to Digital Voice.

In reply to a post by savamac:

Assuming the CSP is at ground level, any reason why they can't run cable outside the house up to first floor level and have ONT inside at first floor level ?

Usually the installers are fairly obliging and will try to fit the ONT where you want so long as it doesn't cause them too much extra work . My splice point is near ground level in the open front porch, the 'internal' fibre then goes up through the ceiling of the prch and runs under the floorboards of my bedroom to the cupboard at the top of the stairs (I had strategically placed floorboards loose anyway so it was easier for the installer than tacking it all around the skirting board which is what they are supposed to do)..

Conduit is really cheap - if people have specific cable routes they would like to be used then it's either a DIY project or something that a home automation / network / TV aerial installer can do - or an electrician could deploy an apprentice on rather than paying electrician rates to install containment.

I've never had Openreach or Hyperoptic object to using existing containment - it makes their life easier if a job that was going to be drilling holes and stapling cable can be turned into one where they tape a cable onto a string and pull it, and it future proofs the whole thing.

As you know every installation is different, I was assuming that a ducted incoming cable is a good route for a fibre upgrade if it is not blocked. As you have experienced a blocked duct or cables buried in the ground is a different kettle of fish. Openreach must have spent a small fortune for your 90 feet of trench and a length of block paving, requiring reinstatement, if that was just for your house you can consider yourself very lucky.

In reply to a post by Sean_123:

The copper cables from the duct were just buried in the run to the house, the fibre patch lead uses the same technique but originates from the new duct and was routed about 90 feet across the garden and maybe 10 feet under block paving, using a slit trench.

10 feet under ? That's the depth of 400kV national grid cables are buried, not a poxy domestic feed fibre !

The grass was just a slit trench which maybe took an hour (two tops). The block paving took a couple of hours to lift and re-lay (they did a good job).

The actual pavement duct took an hour to cut and dig across the front of the property - they used a rotary cutter and a mini digger. I can't remember how long it took to put back but it wasn't a huge amount of time.

It certainly took far longer to install the new CBT chamber which is in front of the house next door which required a far bigger deeper hole with gas, electricity, water, sewage and the existing phone services for them to work around. They didn't drop the ball!

I reckon they were doing about 3 pavement to property installs per day once they got going, no doubt spurred on by Freedom Fibre starting an aggressive overbuild campaign.

Just seen the latest post - no the block paving width is 10 foot - it's certainly not buried 10 foot deep! It's just under the block paving!

Edited by Sean_123 (Fri 31-Mar-23 20:49:58)

Not read the whole thread, but ….

External splice point where the current UG feed comes out of the duct. Cable up the wall, through, then ONT on the wall there next to a fixed power outlet.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Every FTTP provider in the UK that I can think of installs a box outside the house and makes the joint there - it's far less disruptive and less time consuming to mount a box and splice a fibre than your suggestion of digging a hole to hide slack in.

If there was a better approach I am sure one of the AltNets would have started using it.

A fibre splice isn't really a join in the sense of something connectorised that can fail or contaminants can get into, when done properly and protected with proper splice management there is no performance difference between that and a continuous piece of fibre. A connector that has been dragged through a wall is far more likely to cause reliability issues than a splice.

In my experience with City Fibre (for Zen), the installers don't splice the cable, they use pre-made cables. My run is about 20m but the pre-made cable issued is 25m so I have 5m coiled and pinned to the outside wall. I think the shorter lengths issued to the installers are something like 5m and 15m.
(And a fibre was blown through a micro duct installed in the BT duct. The installers were pleased that they didn't have to do anything with the block paving on the drive. I've since thought of a better place for locating the ONT, which would have required a shorter cable and been easier to install. Has anyone had an ONT moved?)

In reply to a post by Sean_123:

Thanks for the explanation - it's the most convincing one I have heard by far.

A second reason is some installs end up being 2 stages. They might do the inside or outside first, do the other later. Especially if they run into a problem at either stage, it means they wont need to enter the property on both visits.

Although I do think needing only a much smaller hole in the wall is a big reason too. Its both neater and easier for the engineer and customer.