Latest News on My Cab

I've heard back regarding the cabinets in the immediate vicinity. Cabinets 12 and 14 are connected to power and are connected to the copper but neither are connected to fibre. It is said that the fibre for 12 is complicated and no solution has been found. 13 is the same as 12 in that the fibre required is complex and no solution yet.

14 has had several problems with blockages but now due to go live in January with only one blockage left!

This is where my brain cells start saying, OK, all the other blockages don't appear to have needed any roadworks - I haven't seen anything, so everythings underground, so, what gives? A month to clear a blockage?

What the heck is meant by "the fibre required is complex"? And why hasn't the copper been connected to 13 yet? 12 which is the same state has had copper? Is it because I was right by saying no one really has done very much with that cabinet?

I think I still stand by my obvservations, that no job is too small for BT and if they wanted to install 500m of trunking to resolve the issue, they' would do it

I think I was entirely justified in raising an eyebrow. It was perfectly obvious there was a problem.

I don't think I'll be getting fibre much before March actually.

A month to clear a blockage?

These can be hundreds of metres of silted up duct, this then has to be jetted out, and the goo removed from site, all this being done without damaging the existing infrastructure. Then you need to consider that road closures or temp traffic lights may be required, if it follows a main road, the wait for permission from the local authority can be lengthy. Round here, they are having to wait 13 weeks to set up traffic lights to pull in and repair a 1600 pr E-side cable. It all adds up.

And why hasn't the copper been connected to 13 yet?

This is the easiest bit, pull in a couple of 100pr cables, terminate either end, a days work for two men, maybe less. There is no urgency at the moment, as they are delayed by the fibre, so the staff can go do something elsewhere.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

A month to clear a blockage?

These can be hundreds of metres of silted up duct, this then has to be jetted out, and the goo removed from site, all this being done without damaging the existing infrastructure. Then you need to consider that road closures or temp traffic lights may be required, if it follows a main road, the wait for permission from the local authority can be lengthy. Round here, they are having to wait 13 weeks to set up traffic lights to pull in and repair a 1600 pr E-side cable. It all adds up.

And why hasn't the copper been connected to 13 yet?

This is the easiest bit, pull in a couple of 100pr cables, terminate either end, a days work for two men, maybe less. There is no urgency at the moment, as they are delayed by the fibre, so the staff can go do something elsewhere.

Thanks for the technical and non condescending reply Zarzaj. Makes a change. Yes, I can see why a heavily silted up duct could take quite a while to clear.

It doesn't appear any roadworks have yet taken place for these blockages to Cabinet 14 - certainly no visible junctions or digging - so potentially everything they've done is underground which should shave a bit of time off the task.

There's no evidence I can see of disruption to many manhole covers (moss and grass still over the top) so I can't see how they're necessarily either cleaning the ducts or finding an alternate solution to getting the fibre to Cab 13.

I would be very curious to know what "the fibre needed is complex" means. Either it's complex because of something it needs to do, or it's complex due to the routing, so they must have been doing something and have some ideas. Worryingly, 4 months in the ground and no solution to the routing of the fibre - seems like quite a problem.

My only curiosity about the lack of Copper on Cab 13 is that although it is the easiest bit, they seem to have completed that bit of it on Cab 12 first which really does make me want to scratch my head wondering why they've done it to Cab 12 and not Cab 13 given that bother have the same problems "complex" fibre needed with no solutions.

One thing I am curious about, which is probably best asked elsewhere, but do they ever need to change the ducts, and what do they do with all that cable? Do they change that segment of cable only?

Thanks again.

Simon