What less maintenance would this new grid require? Does it go without the need for continuity and insulation resistance required for a traditional phoneline?

It wouldn't need a new grid. It would just use the old local loop.

Less maintenance: It wouldn't require as much maintenance because it would be as it is now but people wouldn't be able to complain about poor connections/errors because the voice frequencies would not be carried over them.

They would rent the 135Kb GEA from openreach, connect to their network at the Headend same as for Broadband and use their VOIP Callserver to control the call setup etc. They both seem to have Call controls that will do this already as they are using full MPF and routing the calls over a VOIP network already.

Openreach have built the equivelence in from the start at the access level.

In Theory anyone with a Voip Call server could do this and BB and Voice paths could be from different operators. We may see new Voice operators setting up as a basic call server is quite cheap.

It appears from the Openreach site that you could rent the 135Kb path for voice on the trial, but I haven't heard anybody on the Bradwell Abbey trial saying they are trialling the Voice over FTTP part yet.

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-...

Prices at http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricin...

Appears you can get up to 2 voice 'channels'.

There is battery backup as well. Ask a Bradwell Abbey trialist for a picture!

Any Bradwell Abbey trialists watching? I am
intrigued to see a picture of how big the UPS is.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

There is battery backup as well. Ask a Bradwell Abbey trialist for a picture!

Any Bradwell Abbey trialists watching? I am
intrigued to see a picture of how big the UPS is.

It's inside the ONT.

Be nice to see a picture of the whole setup.

UPS, Optical termination unit, NTE. Or is it all 1 box?

In reply to a post by chris6273:

It wouldn't need a new grid. It would just use the old local loop.

Less maintenance: It wouldn't require as much maintenance because it would be as it is now but people wouldn't be able to complain about poor connections/errors because the voice frequencies would not be carried over them.

Or Ofcom could get their heads out of their backsides and allow BT to do an out and out swap of copper for fibre. That's probably what BT are waiting for.

The ONTs have battery backup pretty much everywhere anyways.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

The FTTC have backup batteries for power cuts,

with FTTC / FTTH you still have a seperate phone line from you home to the exchage the fibre is just for internet traffic

Uh uh!

FTTH does not have a separate non-fibre (ie copper) line for the phone. I believe the FTTH NTE incorporates a UPS just as an FTTC cabinet does.

I commission the FTTC cabs and OLT's and soon FTTH OLT's and the coppger is still being used for phones.

I dont know the design of the NTE's but UPS on them no they will be the size of a netgear router

I agree with you where brownfield sites are concerned, as these are trialling the FTTP broadband technology. For example:-

"The situation in the property itself has changed a little since information
from the Ebbsfleet trial started. At this time since the fibre is an adjunct to
the copper network (which will remain in place) no battery back is provided,
and delivering the fibre into the property involves locating a network
termination box on the outside of the property, where the fibre from the
manifold will terminate, with up to 30m of fibre in a more rugged form that can
be situated anywhere in the property so long it is less than 30m from
termination box. At the end of this internal fibre cable, the fibre modem
requiring mains power will be located. This has an Ethernet port that can be
connected to an Ethernet router or direct to a computer. There are further
Ethernet ports that will be used for additional services as the product is
developed."

However the whole point of greenfield FTTH is that no copper network is involved. I can find Openreach references to this, but at the moment am having immense difficulty finding their document that shows the network topology they envisage, and also a picture of the NTE/OLT which includes a mini-UPS.

It looked fairly hideous, a curvy wall-mounted box with a couple of outlet sockets and a bit bigger, (so far as one could tell), than you say.

I shall keep looking for these, now and then. So I don't dispute what you say wrt what you are being trained for and what is being done in many places at the moment. But that is only broadband FTTP, not Broadband and phone FTTP.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

Be nice to see a picture of the whole setup.

UPS, Optical termination unit, NTE. Or is it all 1 box?

See my reply to the Anon installer, a couple of minutes ago. It's wall-mounted like a phone socket, rectangular with the vertical considerably greater than the horizontal, bulges out (top to bottom) in the middle, and contains an OLT, (Optical Line Termination), instead of an NTE, plus a small UPS. The UPS can be small as it doesn't have to supply much voltage or current.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

In reply to a post by chris6273:

It wouldn't need a new grid. It would just use the old local loop.

Less maintenance: It wouldn't require as much maintenance because it would be as it is now but people wouldn't be able to complain about poor connections/errors because the voice frequencies would not be carried over them.

Or Ofcom could get their heads out of their backsides and allow BT to do an out and out swap of copper for fibre. That's probably what BT are waiting for.

The ONTs have battery backup pretty much everywhere anyways.

I think that is what the new FTTP VoIP trial is about.