Cab wiring question

I saw some guys working on my fibre cab most of yesterday. There have apparently been a couple of blocked ducts in town when they've tried to do other cabs.

I was wondering if the fact that they had both cabs (PCP and Fibre) open and were wiring in both means that they have already got the fibre from the exchange to the fibre cab or can they link the 2 cabs without having first pulled fibre from exchange?

The copper tie pairs can be installed at anytime once the physical cabinet and linking duct are in place. There is no need for the fibre connection to the exchange or power.

That's what I thought - I was hoping that it meant that the fibre was there meaning that blocked ducts weren't an issue. The guys did say that it won't be long until it is switched on so fingers crossed!!

It can be switched on even before fibre arrives too.

I think by switched on the guy meant ready for service as I'd asked him how long until people would be able to order fibre from that cab - at least I hope that's what he meant

Edited by WelshWArrior (Wed 22-Oct-14 09:41:11)

Is there a power switch in the fibre cab? I saw my local cabinet installed a couple of weeks ago and the last step was the power being tee'd into another power supply (next to the BT phonebox) and the hole filled in. I saw the large Tee connector and then it was filled and surfaced over.

I don't think the fibre has arrived yet so no real reason for the power to be enabled in the cabinet.

THere is a circuit breaker in the cabs

Makes sense.

Well the RFS date for SMWLS exchange is 31/12/2014, let's hope it happens on schedule. 5 fibre cabinets are now installed, nothing else showing on roadworks.org so it's essentially done locally except for connecting the fibre feeds.

Hi Ribble

Are you able to tell if there is fibre to cab3 on Tenby (SWTB) exchange yet? There's been guys working there all week up until yesterday (Thurs) and nothing today. Perhaps I'm getting my hopes up but maybe I'll be able to order soon

i susspect they did the copper

Hmm you're probably right. Even though they were working in both cabs (Fibre and PCP), I haven't seen them working in the road that leads to the exchange, pulling any cable through.

I'm just being impatient I guess

It would be very dangerous if there wasn't a breaker in the cabinet. After all, there will be times when the power supply will have to be maintained which would require isolation of the mains. Also, I think not having an isolator would breach electrical installation regulations.

Certainly Virgin Media power cabinets have got breakers in them, as you can see by the photo I took of the inside of my local one when some vandals took the door off. (The approach seems to be somewhat "agricultural", with components screwed to a plywood backplane).

https://www.imageshack.us/i/exeWtvoOj


(VM failed to respond to my fault report, so when it started raining I went out and put the door back on and wrapped duct tape round it. It's now been like that for over three weeks).

No guarantee that the fibre will actually arrive from the direction the exchange is located, it's often linked from a more convenient location in network terms.

And I have discovered today that it seems that at least one of the cabinets on the Wilstead (SMWLS) exchange does have a problem with a blocked duct somewhere. It's likely to delay the RFS date although that isn't certain.

Anyone here know how to find out more, or can find out for me?

I'm on cabinet 5 but cabinets 1, 2 and 3 were also installed in October and have all been wired in as far as I know.

Actually it's cabinets 1, 2, 5, 6 and 13 that are part of the BDUK project.

Anyone here able to give more information on possible fibre/duct blockage work in the area?

If Ribble is about, any chance you are partial to any info about SWTB Cab 3 accepting orders soon? It's been finished for about a month now and I spoke to an Openreach Engineer 2 weeks ago who said it would be within 10 days but still nothing.

I think there are 8 or 9 cabs due to be done on that exchange

I reckon you were given incorrect info and its not complete and there is still a lot of work to complete the fibre

Thanks for that Ribble - thought that was the case. Spoke to another engineer outside my house yesterday (seem to be a lot of problems on my Estate at the moment!) and he said the fibre is coming from Haverfordwest (20 miles away).

So I guess that's probably what's happening now? All the cabs have been in for over a month now and I've seen no other activity around town.

I don't know exactly how many cabs it has, except that one near Shortstown (just south east of Bedford) is labelled 8 so I presume it's at least that many. The higher numbers, such as 13, are part of the Wixams development south of Bedford, I don't know where the original cabs are located but so far I think there is only one on Wixams.

My contact on Bedford Borough Council tells me it's a duct blockage that affects all of the cabs currently installed, where it might be and how long these things take to get fixed, I have no idea.

Edited by rippedcotton (Wed 10-Dec-14 17:25:44)