Shrewsbury Fibre rollout

Hello all,

Hopefully you may all be able to help me.

I live in Shrewsbury, partial postcode of SY36. The estate is served by two cabinets 69 and 71. 69 contains a large fibre cabinet, a smaller fibre cabinet and a classic cabinet with an extra pod on the side. These are all in a line and sit on the main road at one end of the estate.

The other, 71, sits at the other end of the road and again consists of a large and small fibre cab, with the classic cab on the opposite side of the road with no pod. This set of cabs also serves another smaller new estate via FTTP (or I think it does), as well as a few random houses dotted around.

There�s been a lot of work recently to first add the larger cabs at each end of the estate and then the pod on the older cab at 69. I believe the older cabs were also replaced too.

I live in the middle of the two cabs, getting around 25 down and 3 up, the upload being my main issue. I�m served by cab 71

Recently, some roadworks appeared on roadworks.org for 64m of ducting from cab 69 towards 71 and the shops in the middle of the estate, this was undertaken earlier in the week and looks to terminate at a junction box (based on the marks left in the grass). The ducting looked to be about 4� in diameter and was grey. The phone connections are all underground, too.

My question is this: The ducting used seems quite large for normal fibre connections and I�d expect that there�s already ducting down that section of the road. Could this be in preparation for something like FTTP/FTTrN? Or is it simply to allow for higher demand as the area seems to be very over subscribed, with the checker showing as awaiting capacity since I moved here 3.5 years ago, only briefly showing availability before it fills up again. I suppose it could also be a replacement...

What would be your opinions? And does anyone have any data that show an upgrade is on its way?

Thanks!

Impossible to say really

The ducting used seems quite large for normal fibre connections and I�d expect that there�s already ducting down that section of the road

Ducting fills very quickly. It could be for more copper or fibre.
They don't use smaller ducting if it is being laid for fibre. They use standard sized ducting with future capacity requirements in mind.
Squeezing fibre tubing down existing ducting can be a very fiddly job.

Apart from a couple individual trials there is no FTTrN being deployed by OpenReach so definitely not that.

Shame on the FTTrN, I think that�d be perfect for me as I�m 800m from each cab!

More copper would seem odd, as there�s no new houses being built within the estate and I�d imagine that everyone would already have a phone line.

The (boring) likelihood is, I suppose, a repair?

With no FTTrN coming, the only thing I can hope for is FTTP, or another cabinet being built in the middle of the estate...

The works are for the extra cabinet by the looks of it due to capacity issues as there is a Waiting list in operation on cab 71.

Interestingly enough, cab 69 now has a gfast pod! Spotted some contractors working on the cab at 7:30 this morning and it was there on my journey home. Unfortunately the wrong cab for me but progress locally nonetheless.

And so does 71!

Lots of gfast pods popping up locally, but nowhere showing as available to order. I wonder if Openreach are planning a mass switch on.

Probably when they built and connected the headend

And no upgrades for those in the middle like you who need it the most. The joys of a commercial Openreach... !

Both cabs have gone live for Gfast today. Houses near the cabs quoting decent speeds and as expected I�m sat in the middle with no change!

Fingers crossed for some FTTP to fill in the gaps but I�m not hopeful!