Fibre path

I recently had FTTP installed. My local exchange is a tiny rural one - so small, I've never been able to find it despite knowing the location on Google Maps. It's Slaley in Northumberland, NESLY. I have heard that FTTP fibre paths might not go to a small exchange but rather to a larger exchange.

So, in the spirit of nothing more than idle curiosity, how could I find out where my fibre connection goes?

It runs on poles for half a mile then disappears underground so there's no clue there.

could the exchange be the building near the phone box and postbox and next to the shop. as to the fibre route ???

Reckon exchange is here

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.9141287,-2.043193,3a...

well spotted, I didn't see that

In reply to a post by partial:

Reckon exchange is here

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.9141287,-2.043193,3a...

Amazing spot.

In reply to a post by threelegs:

could the exchange be the building near the phone box and postbox and next to the shop. as to the fibre route ???

Well, that looks favourite. I'd never spotted that building as ten years of vegetation now obscures it.

I missed out a key point. I live about a mile or so north in a cluster of houses which got dismal ADSL due to 3-4 miles of mixed copper and aluminium, hence FTTP to a cluster of about 30 houses a few months ago. The village as shown on streetview actually has FTTC although I can't see the cabinet on streetview. Field trip required...

So, my fibre runs along a road which intercepts a main road (or as close to main as you get round here) along which I'm fairly sure that the fibre serving the Slaley exchange runs. So, my connection could turn left towards the local exchange or right towards a much bigger exchange and that's what I'm curious about.

It might turn towards a small exchange but it will certainly not be that exchange where it terminates.

Far more likely to be going to the larger one you mention, or maybe an even bigger one somewhere else. One of the main points about FTTP is that the signal can travel miles, unlike copper wire broadband signals.

Small exchanges will cease to exist once phone services over copper are replaced by phone services over the fibre. For years now many exchanges that have FTTC only house the ADSLx and PSTN phone lines. It wasn�t cost-effective or even possible to fit the equipment in them.

The FTTC cabinets by the phone cabinets are very often fed by a larger exchange elsewhere. Broadband and phone are merged and spilt in the FTTC cabinets, depending on direction. As FTTP spreads, even the FTTC cabinets will disappear. And at some point, the phone cabinets.

Hexham most likely handover exchange

As Andrew has said I believe your fibre will eventually terminate in Hexham.

My parents live in the same area but are on the other side of the Linnels Bridge so are stuck with 1-2Mb ADSL. I have been following the rollout of Fibre in the area, last summer Fibre was strung along the B6306 from the junction with the B6307 heading towards Slaley past the sawmill and hooking up the houses along the way.

There is still a coil of fibre unterminated on a pole by the junction of North Road (I think).

Prior to this summers activity the only fibre I had seen was to a private house heading from Slaley towards the Traveller's rest which must have been Fibre On Demand.

The village as shown on streetview actually has FTTC although I can't see the cabinet on streetview. Field trip required...

Start near the exchange..... It will be near there.!

It probably goes directly to Hexham. When they designed the FTTC network, and subsequently the FTTP network they didn�t take the fibres into the local exchanges at all. They could have done that and piggybacked from there to the handover exchange as you may do if you were running a fibre from a mobile mast to the nearest Metro Node.

But it just made more sense as they�re putting entirely new cables in to bypass those small exchanges entirely.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Hexham most likely handover exchange

That's what I was assuming. It makes sense to me although that is no predictor of what's actually the case!

It will be going to a large exchange. It 100% won�t be going to your small exchange. That�s not how they designed the network.

Similar exchange design here in Cornwall took me ages to spot it but when I drove past one day and noticed the green cabinets I put them together, and the area this exchange is in feeds back to another large exchange for FTTP and FTTC as I remember them shoving fibre down the ducts along the roads (which took several weeks) and they started in the main exchange area then ended up there and so on.

Rurual Exch

As far as I am aware the local fibre bypasses the local exchange and goes direct to the head end for network optimization so in time the small exchanges with PSTN and ADSL only can be phased out, not yet for some time but sure im of the option it will happen.

wonder what speed BB the white cottage gets?

24Mbps ADSL2+ on an EO line ?

In reply to a post by thomaswarne01:

Similar exchange design here in Cornwall took me ages to spot it but when I drove past one day and noticed the green cabinets I put them together, and the area this exchange is in feeds back to another large exchange for FTTP and FTTC as I remember them shoving fibre down the ducts along the roads (which took several weeks) and they started in the main exchange area then ended up there and so on.

Rurual Exch

As far as I am aware the local fibre bypasses the local exchange and goes direct to the head end for network optimization so in time the small exchanges with PSTN and ADSL only can be phased out, not yet for some time but sure im of the option it will happen.

Yes. This was policy, and there aren�t any exceptions that I�m aware. So that BT (who own the physical network and occupy the buildings) has the option of vacating the buildings in future.

I live in a town of 15,000 people or so, with its own exchange but even that is bypassed and will close eventually. There are 4 handover exchanges covering my borough but there are 11 exchanges.

Hi Icaras

Would this theory work when trying to figure out your local fibre handover exchange.

1) Locate a new build estate within your local area served by FTTP only (no copper)
2) Use BT broadband and availability checker to identify a property from above new build estate.
3) Compare exchange with your local exchange, if different this could possibly be your handover exchange.


PS: I believe if properties are served by copper and FTTP the copper exchange will be displayed on the BT broadband and availability checker rather than the fibre handover exchange

Edited by deleted (Tue 26-Nov-19 09:42:29)

If the checkers are showing the correct information of course. Have seen a good number of quirks over the years

That is a large one ... one we use at times: https://goo.gl/maps/nAJKweLibsR2br4W9

And the road is busy when the shot was taken, Royal Mail, car going the other way and Google Mapping car , often I can drive the 17 miles and maybe se one or two cars going the other way.

Not always, friends on an exchange in Scotland are in a similar situation, however they have a line several hundred metres long.

80Mbit/s on FTTC, cabinet outside the exchange building

Yep .

It was basically a joke, as there was a second photo showing the two cabinets. I was suggesting those were both new and cabled to the village but the cottage the other side of the road still had a line under the road direct to the exchange.

Warped sense of humour, but stranger dafter things happen .

I was surprised to see the drop wire (for the property next door to the exchange called Tregarta) coming down the lane from Rumford.

Edit: Having done a little more research the estimated speeds are as follows

ADSL 2+ = Up to 17Mbps
VDSL = Up to 54.8Mbps (Clean High)

Edited by deleted (Tue 26-Nov-19 16:08:54)

My parent's place is the same. The exchange is pretty much at the bottom of their garden but the phone line is 1.2km long.

In reply to a post by MHC:

That is a large one ... one we use at times: https://goo.gl/maps/nAJKweLibsR2br4W9

And the road is busy when the shot was taken, Royal Mail, car going the other way and Google Mapping car , often I can drive the 17 miles and maybe se one or two cars going the other way.

Exactly-and clearly that building is not big enough for much if any broadband equipment to be housed. It�ll have a tiny frame and a rack or 2 of system X/Y for voice. Does it have ADSL of any kind?

Yes, full ADSL services available from it.

Not much equipment needed as it only serves around 40 customers/lines! If the "free full fibre broadband" ever happens, a few of those will be costing the government £150k or more each!

In reply to a post by MHC:

Not much equipment needed as it only serves around 40 customers/lines! If the "free full fibre broadband" ever happens, a few of those will be costing the government £150k or more each!

You reckon £6m to connect 40 customers? What per-km rate are you using?

Around £10-15k per mile and with some of those customers they are 10miles or more from a main exchange, not the shed, and often there is very little of a run that can be used for more than one customer.

I know of one who asked for a rough order of magnitude for FTTPoD and was told "potentially £150-200k and maybe more"

some of those customers they are 10miles or more from a main exchange, not the shed

Sure, but if they were doing the whole 40 properties then they'd stick a splitter and/or fibre aggregation node at the shed, or some other convenient location: they wouldn't run everyone back individually to the main exchange. I agree that deploying a single FTTPoD user would make no sense.

There's also been some talk of remote nodes to extend FTTP range - mentioned in second half of this article.

Obviously, someone paid to get the copper out there in the first place. I see no reason why doing it again with fibre need be any more expensive than first time round. £150K total to cover all 40 properties sounds plausible - I've seen figures of £4K per property floated for the very rural areas.

In reply to a post by witchunt:

The village as shown on streetview actually has FTTC although I can't see the cabinet on streetview. Field trip required...

Start near the exchange..... It will be near there.!

The cabinet is near the site of the phone box. Strange that it doesn't appear on the streetview although the images are quite old. So, I think I now know where the exchange is.

That's an itch scratched!

In reply to a post by MHC:

I know of one who asked for a rough order of magnitude for FTTPoD and was told "potentially £150-200k and maybe more"

Was that an actual quote or just someone guessing what the figure might be?

I've never seen a desktop quote over £39k and they don't even issue them any more.
They just come back with unable to provide a desktop quote if it's that high now.

Whoever told you they got a quote for, or was advised the quote could be £150-200k is making stuff up, being poorly advised, or the system has changed.

In reply to a post by dect:

Would this theory work when trying to figure out your local fibre handover exchange.

1) Locate a new build estate within your local area served by FTTP only (no copper)
2) Use BT broadband and availability checker to identify a property from above new build estate.
3) Compare exchange with your local exchange, if different this could possibly be your handover exchange.

This seems to work for my area. I already know where my FTTP line terminates at (NSIMD), however if i didn't, then doing a check on the DSL checker for a nearby location @ IV2 7AJ (FTTP only new build estate at Stratton/West Culloden) shows the exchange as 'Inverness Macdhui' (NSIMD). Both my home & the Barratt new build site are a lot closer to the Inverness Culloden (NSICL) exchange, less than 1km away.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

This seems to work for my area. I already know where my FTTP line terminates at (NSIMD), however if i didn't, then doing a check on the DSL checker for a nearby location @ IV2 7AJ (FTTP only new build estate at Stratton/West Culloden) shows the exchange as 'Inverness Macdhui' (NSIMD). Both my home & the Barratt new build site are a lot closer to the Inverness Culloden (NSICL) exchange, less than 1km away.

Thanks a lot for verifying that it works for you.

I also used the logic on a few new build properties (FTTP only) in other nearby exchange areas as well as my own exchange area and they all pointed back to the same exchange so I am reasonably confident I now know where my nearest handover exchange is and what exchanges around me could/will be demised once FTTP is fully rolled out.

Edited by deleted (Wed 27-Nov-19 08:36:25)