Fibre / conduit question

We live between two villages that are Fibre enabled. But unluckily on some 2km of old copper cable. So only ADSL2+ unluckily. Had an Openreach engineer round today to look at an issue (pole down) and got talking about Fibre. And he said that they would be looking to replace the old copper (buried under ground and follows the road) with Firbe at some point. Hopefully within a couple of years. And it would be FTTP. Now I had sort of assumed this would never happen in my lifetime! As the line only supports probably a dozen or so properties.

I would have thought that the cost would be prohibitive!?

Out of interest... can they just pull fibre cable through the old conduit buried along the roadside (that currently contains the copper cable)? or do they have to put in all new conduit to support the fibre?

Sort of got my hopes up a bit. Though I suppose that he could have been talking rubbish.

If the ducting isn't blocked or full then yes fibre can be installed in it, and relatively cheaply. If its blocked then they may be able to clear the blockages.

It's when they have to replace ducts or install ducts where there aren't any, costs sore.


PS. Don't get you're hopes up too much, I doubt many engineers are privy to fibre expansion plans.

Edited by R0NSKI (Sat 02-Dec-17 10:41:55)

Lots of talk of 10 million homes of full fibre from Openreach by mid 2020's but it is just talk, and given Chinese whispers I would treat it as such until https://www.homeandbusiness.openreach.co.uk/fibre-br... starts to mention a FTTP journey

I am in a similar situation to yourself and thought we would never get decent fixed BB but recently the OR checker has changed to showing FTTP in scope albeit with no timescale mentioned so there is hope. As MrSaffron has said keep looking on the OR website for any status changes and keep your fingers crossed ! It has also been suggested that the fibre could be strung overhead on the existing poles so this may be an option in your case as well if it turns out the ducting is blocked.

If that is 2km of copper from the cabinet, you should be able to get some level of FTTC - probably down in the 5-10 Mbps. How would that compare to your existing ADSL2+?

Current cabling is all underground ducting by the roadside. Just for some mad reason, they decided 25m from my house, to stick a short pole up and run the last bit overhead! Not clever, as they put the one and only pole right under a VERY large Oak tree (been there over 200 years). God only knows why they ran half the distance to my house (approx 25m) with a buried armored cable and then decided to run the last 25m from a pole! Who knows... Maybe they ran out of cable. Was talking to the Openreach engineer because they are going to replace the pole (50 years old and knackered). Even the engineer thought it was mad and said "why didn't they just run an armored cable all the way to the house?" Good luck to them, as it will need to be done by hand, as there's no other way to access it. Sorry... I've digressed a bit.

Current ADSL2+ sync is around 11Mbps. So FTTC not really worth looking at. But a good suggestion otherwise.

Thanks for your comments, appreciated. Not going to get my hopes up by the look of it.

TBC as they say.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

If that "2 kms" is from the exchange and you are NOT on an EO (Exchange Only - ie directly connected without an intervening PCP cabinet), then you could have distance/attenuation problems.

However, if there is a PCP (oldish Green Cabinet usually), then it would be that shorter distance to your house, which has the potential of higher VDSL speeds.

Assuming that you do have a PCP and the general fibre upgrade is done conventionally as has happened to over 90% of the present "Superfast Fibre", with an FTTC (VDSL) Cabinet nearby, you would have to add in that PCP to FTTC distance.

The fibre will go to the FTTC, new copper links will be added from the FTTC to the PCP, joined to your existing PCP to house via "old copper" wiring.

The way it is done, is to maintain existing phone services including alarms, 999 calls etc, even if you rarely or never use a land-line telephone. Legal requirements etc.

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In the meantime, you should ensure that you are getting maximum performance from your present arrangements, particularly making sure that your phone line is "quiet" by doing the 17070 QLT Test, cleaning/tidying any internal extensions etc.

But why shouldn�t it be FTTP rather than C that was being discussed ?

From how I understand it... The green cabinet (fibre enabled I believe) that we are connected to, is in the local town (Dalbeattie) opposite the Bank of Scotland (so says the Openreach man) and there is then some 2km of copper cable that then heads out of the town to us (all under ground). Our connection just appears to be spliced into the cable that runs past our property (basically middle of nowhere). There's just sort of waterproof connector under the hedge between us and the road. A black armored cable then goes approx. 25m on to our house from this connector and rather than continue onto the house the last 25m, some bright spark thought it was a good idea to stick a 15ft pole up and run a drop cable the other 25m. That's been fine for 40 years, unluckily a rather large branch from an Oak tree fell on it and brought the cable down last month (but that's another story).

Given your occupation, you may be able to confirm that in the vast majority of cases, it is fttC that is being installed, with fttP etc being relatively rare, although hopefully increasing.

My understanding is that FTTP etc is relatively expensive, particularly getting the final new fibre individual runs to the premises - apparently corresponding to the existing D-Side Copper, as that final run can involve a high amount of work, whether overhead or under-ground or a combination.

Also the specialist installers required, judging by the Yarnfield Recruitment thread.

Additionally, I only have direct knowledge of watching and discussing some FTTC upgrades being done, so now after about 70 (possibly 96) in varying degrees locally, I have some confidence in describing that - whereas I have not encountered any FTTP etc installations, so choosing to avoid that, although reading the various postings about it.

Given your experience, you may be able to describe FTTP installations in detail, particularly as you seem to be suggesting that FTTP is more likely in the OP's situation, to the benefit of the OP and many of the forum participants.

If that green cabinet is "old" and does NOT have vents on it, it is likely to be an (old) PCP.

If it is new(ish), with vents and mains-warning signs, close to a PCP as above, it is likely to be the FTTC Cabinet, providing the VDSL signals to the PCP.

Frequently, there are signs of associated new(ish) trenches between the two, to accommodate the ducting for the Link Cables.

The FTTC may also have SuperFibre adverts on them; but not always. My local FTTC is devoid of adverts of any sort.

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If it is newi(ish), with vents etc but nowhere near another older cabinet, it may be an AIO (All In One) Cabinet usually associated with direct EO (Exchnage-Only) lines which go to subscribers without involving a PCP.

These AIO cabinets are relatively recent additions to the FTTC range; and are usually if not always very close to the Exchange.

They combine the functions of a PCP and FTTC.

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Very recently our PCP was "modernised" by having a new cabinet shell fitted, very similar to the FTTC - but without vents, warning signs etc, the latter because only the low phone voltages are and should be present.

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I wonder if your solitary phone pole was to avoid other (unmapped/unrecorded) services on that final part?

These AIO cabinets are relatively recent additions to the FTTC range; and are usually if not always very close to the Exchange.

Not always. Our AIO is c2km from both our exchange (Vauxhall) and headend (Walworth).