EO Line

I guess here in Derry we are lucky with our 100% coverage, also there is a cab right infront of my exchange (LD/Waterside). Just wondering why all exchanges don't have something the same instead of restricting people getting FTTC

Picture of FTTC Cabinet Outside NILDW

Edited by BuckleZ (Sun 18-Nov-12 16:34:33)

Because Northern Ireland has had not just Openreach money being spent - they have slightly different goal/timelines for broadband than the mainland.

FTTC cabs outside exchange or hybrid ones that are closer to the cluster are what Openreach plan - see
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5473-suffering-an...

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

FTTC cabs outside exchange or hybrid ones that are closer to the cluster are what Openreach plan

Which is, of course, of little help to those on long EO lines. What's worse in the case of the 75 lines on the development where I live is that we are surrounded by FTTC enabled cabs and also VM. For example the houses on the opposite side of the road enjoy 80Mb FTTC as well as VM whereas on this side we're limited to EO ADSL so whilst we might expect to see some improvement in speeds it would be far from stellar.

"closer to the cluster"

They are planning cabs that are NOT just outside the exchange. This is where the hybrid solution comes into play, as the new PCP and fibre node share the same cabinet.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

"closer to the cluster"

They are planning cabs that are NOT just outside the exchange. This is where the hybrid solution comes into play, as the new PCP and fibre node share the same cabinet.

Doh! My apologies - I totally missed that. I was convinced I had read Exchange!

Of course still no guarantee they will fix your cluster, so be sure to keep badgering away at BT/council etc

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

"closer to the cluster"

They are planning cabs that are NOT just outside the exchange. This is where the hybrid solution comes into play, as the new PCP and fibre node share the same cabinet.

We've seen Openreach respond to some queries indicating that they're not willing to make "network alterations" to re-route people's lines amongst cabinets. In particular they very much give the impression that they're not very willing to redo E-side cables for any reason.

Now, I understand the reasons behind that, in general. I also know that the E-side cables are a bit more than just twisted pair - large, armoured, and pressurised. They have hundreds of pairs involved - and presumably are very organised in the way they are ducted.

The question is... Are EO lines similarly organised? Or do they leave the exchange building in considerably lower-tech ways? Smaller, disjoint bundles?

I'm just wondering what kind of re-organisation is needed to either put cabinets outside the exchange, or hybrid cabinet out "somewhere" in the network.

In one village I know there are large numbers of EO lines and just a couple of cabinets.

It looks as though the cables leaving the exchange are 25 pair and possibly 10 pair. the 25 pair will be ducted to a pole, rise up te side of te pole to a box - several lines go direct to properties and others go to another pole before distribution.

There might be say 4 x25 pair cables running together to the first pole then three go 5 poles further, 2 continue for a way further and then the final one disappears into the sticks and at a guess just 30% usage. So, yes it could be possible to install a box by that first pole and route all four cables through it, however there may not be enough slack in the cable to allow the work so it would need a new cable from exchange to the first pole. Not a cheap exercise to dig 400m of trench to install a new cable ... for what might only be 10 or 20 connections.

That is because of the cost, not some religious zeal.
EO lines, depends on the number, i.e. answer varies, may be a 10 pair cable or a heavy 100 pair one.

The BDUK/LA funding changes the game, and to meet targets some EO will need enabling.

North Yorkshire and Cornwall both have things progressing for EO lines.

There is a price list for Network Alterations, so if willing to pay the costs you can do things, but consumers will end up having to remortgage

however there may not be enough slack in the cable to allow the work

If there's a damaged (or stolen) cable they do this sort of thing overnight as a repair, so I don't see why it should be possible to as it were put an axe through the cable, wire the exchange end into a cabinet than add a short length of cable to reconnect the other end.

Perhaps the service outage is the concern ?

Or do VDSL from the exchange

Possible but still requires a lot more work ... and the cost against return will be high especially if the uptake will be just a few users.

VDSL from the exchange ... One day!

Not really a rule to E0. Small exchanges may be totally E0 with small unpressurised 100pr cables leaving or E1, E2 pillars and no cabinets.

Large exchanges may have large multi thousand pair E0 cables as in the late eighties and early nineties pressurising as far as possible into the access network and not having any cabinets was in vogue.

Bare in mind that at this time they were also deploying 4800 pair mainside cables so you could have very large no cabinet areas in town and much smaller cables in the villages.

When I look at deload reloading a cabinet on the fly with working circuits on board, I would be pricing two jointers, two weeks plus civils, plus stores, plus potential traffic management. Cutting in on an E0 would be similar but would have added challenges.

For comparison, jointing copper tails into an FTTC cabinet from an existing cabinet, I would price one jointer one day providing the distance was such that he could draw in the cables on his own.

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Nov-12 21:03:30)

Thanks all!

I expected the answer for some of the small exchanges - the 10- or 25-pair cables etc.

However, I didn't expect that BT, at one time, employed a *strategy* of long-distance, large-scale, EO lines. 4800-pairs! The jointers must have had fun working at those underground!

That pricing example gives a good idea of the difference in workload it can cost.

In my trawls, I found a few other things that might interest:
- An Openreach cable identification guide, showing some examples of cable (incl 1600-pair and some lead-sheathed cables that look larger)
- That some of the E-side cables (that are pressurised) are insulated in paper - and you don't want to get these wet. You definitely don't want to be playing with these too much!
- That cabinets are likely to take in 1,000 E-side lines, probably in 2 or 3 cables.
- And a cabinet that got torched:

Someone once torched a cab (jointing cabinet) in our area which had IIRC
about 500 working circuits in it and that took 3 days and 3 nights to sort
out - mind you, we did have time for a bit of shut-eye on the night shift
)

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q235/darkdoo/cab1...
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q235/darkdoo/cab1...

>>- That some of the E-side cables (that are pressurised) are insulated in paper - and you don't want to get these wet. You definitely don't want to be playing with these too much!

Well, someone has to play with them. A few pics from the mysterious world underneath the MDF...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37048532@N04/8210717085...
Nice bit of 1958 plumbing on a 1200pr lead sheathed, dry core, paper insulated.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37048532@N04/8211808078...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37048532@N04/8211805606...
1200pr old and new cables jigged.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37048532@N04/8211808722...
An exchange cable nest with all the local main cables heading out to the happy punters.

But only any use for EO lines under 1km long

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

I guess here in Derry we are lucky with our 100% coverage, also there is a cab right infront of my exchange (LD/Waterside). Just wondering why all exchanges don't have something the same instead of restricting people getting FTTC

Picture of FTTC Cabinet Outside NILDW

Isn't that just the FTTC cabinet for cabinet 19 on the other side of the road? Looking at the manhole covers 19 is not a new cabinet it just happens to be close to the exchange so not a huge surprise there's a cabinet there especially given there's nowhere on that side of the road to put a cabinet as tall as the fibre one without annoying people.

We have a cab right out side our exchange, the PCP's always been there http://goo.gl/maps/wbGXm

Same as us in Uckfield, however no google view of it.