In reply to a post by slimj:

Has anyone tried to get a quote when fibre has been run close by to their address?

My neighbour 2 doors away, has the 2 port fibre node/DP from my FTTPoD build located almost on his doorstep (~20m away). However he was quoted £17k from Cerberus for FTTPoD, I'm 99% sure he would have been quoted far less if he went ahead & requested a site survey but he didn't take things further. So if you're fairly sure that you have a fibre node very close by - to which a connection can be made - then you may need to get an Openreach surveyor out for a survey to get a true cost. Of course this means losing £250 if you decide not to proceed, so only you can decide if its worth the risk.

In reply to a post by LordVader:

Number of premises passed for FTTP: 4

Is it possible to find out the addresses passed to see if they would be interested in sharing cost?

"premises passed" means other properties who would be sharing the final fibre DP with you, so these 4 premises would most likely be your closest neighbours.

I emailed Cerberus and they very quickly came back with the 4 addresses.

Still a little confused with how a linked order would work. Is it a case I pay the £250+VAT up front, wait for the proper quote then see if the other 4 addresses are willing to share cost?

In reply to a post by LordVader:

Number of premises passed for FTTP: 4

Is it possible to find out the addresses passed to see if they would be interested in sharing cost?

You won't know with complete certainty until after your survey comes back.

However, if there are 4 properties (including yours) served from the same pole, or the same pavement chamber, then it's a fair bet it's those.

In reply to a post by LordVader:

Still a little confused with how a linked order would work. Is it a case I pay the £250+VAT up front, wait for the proper quote then see if the other 4 addresses are willing to share cost?

I believe there are two possible approaches you can take.

One is the official "linked orders" approach. I've never seen this in action, but I believe you would have to submit all the linked orders prior to paying for the survey. This is because you're not, in fact, paying for a survey - you're actually placing an order (or in this case, a collection of orders). Once you get the final price, you have the option to drop out, although the £250+VAT is lost.

I'm unclear whether *all* the linked orders would each have a separate £250+VAT charge. It seems unfair if they did, since presumably a single survey and design will take place; but they might argue that the design is more complex for multiple-property installations.

The advantage of this approach is that you're *not* limited to just the 4 properties on the same DP. You can link FTTPoD orders with any interested nearby properties, and they'll do a survey and come up with a plan to connect you all. It's also possible to combine one business gigabit voucher (£2500) with one or more residential gigabit vouchers (£500) - up to ten of them I think.

The disadvantages are (1) these are separate FTTPoD orders, so everyone pays the higher rental charge for the first 12 months (£100+VAT from Cerberus); and (2) there is a level of trust required, because if one person cancels, all the other linked orders are cancelled. In theory, one participant could use this as a threat against the others.

I'd say this is the way to go for a few premises on different DPs, unless you have enough interest for a larger-scale Community Fibre Partnership.

Your other option, if all the interested parties are on the same DP, is "informal" sharing. Basically: you place the FTTPoD order yourself, and your interested neighbour promises to pay you a certain amount towards it. When your FTTPoD order is delivered, hey presto, they find themselves able to place a regular WBC FTTP order with any service provider they like - which is definitely cheaper for them - they may even get cashback.

However there's not much incentive for the neighbour to chip in with your FTTPoD cost, if they know that you'd go ahead without them anyway. Hence it's a poker game: you need to convince them that you would not, or could not, go ahead (even forfeiting your £250+VAT) if they won't join in. And even if they promise they'll pay, they could change their mind - unless you get the money up-front, which means they have to trust you instead.

All fun

Edited by candlerb (Tue 27-Aug-19 17:38:53)

Another update on my build (paid for on the 5/6), nothing has happened since a blockage was found about 200m down the road on July 8th. Finally as of last week a road works bulletin appeared saying "excavate onto bt ducts for the clearance of duct blockages in to facilitate spine cabling works.". Thats taking place on the 9th September so a little disapointing that everything just ground to a halt for 2 months but its not unexpected I guess. Last update from Cerberus/BT said "Civils Estimate raised to contract supplier to clear Duct blockage.
Next update in 31 working days to validate the works and set an accurate completion date. " and that was two weeks ago, so realistically Id say I wont see anything else happening for another month if that is to be believed.

It seems to have taken forever, but my FTTPoD line finally went live today, hooray!!!

From placing the survey order it has been just under 18 months (538 days to be exact); and from final costing and confirmed order, 14 months (430 days). I won't bore you with all the problems, but the final one was because the order had been open so long, the SVLAN on the cablelink had been ceased, requiring the order to be cancelled and resubmitted.

Anyway, I'm delighted that it's up and running at last. My FTTC speed has been dropping over the last few months - upload speed is now under 3Mbps, down from 5Mbps - and dslchecker has reacted simply by lowering my expected speed range.

This is what I now have:



I actually get a flat 307M when using iperf3 from the command line to a server in a data centre. I suspect that my browser is the weakest link for the TBB test.

A few points that might be of interest around the installation itself.

Firstly, based on what I read here, I was expecting the fibre drop to be a hybrid, pre-connectorised cable. In fact it was neither. It was a stiff black cable which looked like coax from the outside; the cut end looked like coax too, with some sort of strengthening mesh. The installer cut it to length and attached a thin white connector pigtail. As it was fibre only, he left the existing copper in place. (This is through an underground duct, and maybe overhead installs are different).

There's no external splice box: the cables were pulled in one piece from the pavement chamber to the ONT. In the pavement chamber there's a 4-port CBT.

The ONT is a 1+1, supplied without BBU but still with the outer housing, which keeps things neat as the pigtail and PSU cables are coiled up inside. I did ask if it was possible to get a 4-port ONT, but was told they're not provided for new installs any more. Instead, the installer kindly pulled two fibre cables, so the second one is there ready to be terminated if and when required.

Finally: I must express my thanks and full marks to Cerberus for their limitless patience and persistence. Thanks too to all the OpenReach personnel I met, who were professional and courteous without exception. There may be lessons to be learned on the project management side, but I'm sure it'll make an interesting case study for someone

In reply to a post by candlerb:

It was a stiff black cable which looked like coax from the outside; the cut end looked like coax too, with some sort of strengthening mesh. The installer cut it to length and attached a thin white connector pigtail.

Congratulations on your FTTPoD going live.

On the point you made about the fibre cable, are you saying it was different than this?
https://twitter.com/MrSaffron/status/934440300151525381

Edited by dect (Fri 30-Aug-19 17:48:06)

In reply to a post by dect:

On the point you made about the fibre cable, are you saying it was different than this?
https://twitter.com/MrSaffron/status/934440300151525381

That looks the same.

Why two fibre cables pulled in?