FTTP Rollout 2020 - Rural Towns

I read that my town would be on the list (Jan 2020 Rural town rollout announcement) for FTTP and it seems they are doing the work already.

Picture here

Unless I'm mistaken, that's a fibre connection point.

Downside is, they did 2 grids on the opposite side of the road. I have a grid my side which I assume they will be doing soon.

Good to see the speed of rollout. I don't suppose anyone could guess on how long until you can order?

I assume you can't connect to the opposite side of the road, so I will need to wait until my grid is done.

Thanks

Edited by oldskool (Thu 05-Mar-20 11:41:07)

That's a Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT), where fibres to individual properties connect, at the time a particular property places an order for FTTP service.

What you call "grids" are actually "pavement chambers".

I don't suppose anyone could guess on how long until you can order?

This year, next year, sometime, never. Plenty of examples where FTTP installs have been partially done then never completed, unfortunately. Also cases where orders are not taken until a whole area has been released.

I assume you can't connect to the opposite side of the road, so I will need to wait until my grid is done.

Indeed, almost certainly your property is served by the pavement chamber outside your house or one or two doors down.

Thank you

I guessed they would need to do my side too. Perhaps they are doing it soon or as you say its a few doors down.

Thanks for the info. I guess without delays the ordering should be ready by march 2021 according to the press release. Hopefully it is sooner. Just pleased to see progress already.

Today another flurry of activity. The 2 pavement chambers that got 8 or 12 port connection blocks installed last week on the other side of the road were re-opened today

The pavement chamber on my side of the road was also opened and from what I can see they used some sort of machine powered rodding to clear the channels I assume and then a blue rope was threaded across the road... So now I assume both sides of the road are connected up, as in if I order FTTP they will use the blue rope to pull fibre from a port to my property, under the road.

I just expected there to be another loop and connection block on my side.

Sound about right? If so, hopefully not too long until order.

Edited by oldskool (Wed 11-Mar-20 23:14:56)

as in if I order FTTP they will use the blue rope to pull fibre from a port to my property, under the road.

It's possible, however they'd have to pull separate cables for each of the properties on your side of the road, each time one of those properties is connected.

I suspect instead they're preparing to install a CBT in the chamber on your side, and the pull rope will be used to get the fibre cable to it.

oldskool

Best example we have so far is Caergwrle which has been done quite fast. ( Which area are you)

I think once each village is started the first houses to be able to order will be quite fast but the last 'tail' may be quite a way behind ( up to 12 months). So if your chambers have been done you should be early in the area.

You will just have to keep an eye on the checker to see when it goes live for you. Then let Andrew know, with postcode, on here so he can keep the maps up to date. ( It is a massive checking all the possible areas for FTTP so knowing where to target his looking helps).

Thanks all

I'm in Stone, (STAFFS) and Openreach are still on my estate today moving things through the pavement chambers.

But it was a sub contractor that actually ran the fibre last week.

They are replacing poles on roadworks.org all around Stone too, but our estate has the pavement chambers.

The same contractor is working on the verge on the main road which I'm pretty sure is the main cable route back to exchange, at a guess we will be the first to get connected up for our area.

They were doing cable route/length surveys all through feb and spray painted all of the grids. All in to this point its been 2 months, I'd say moving quickly since the announcement was Jan.

I'll keep an eye on the checker and post back when its ready.

As someone else said, perhaps the blue rope is to pull the fibre cable through to put a connector block on this side too.

Just to update

My area is now available to order FTTP

Result!
Now you have a problem as Openreach order book starts at 1st June, so its actually getting it installed in your house that will be a longer delay.

For the record from start to finish ours took Openreach 1.5 months from start to order date.
Managed to sneak my installation in last week by drilling hole myself and having a non-jobsworth engineer who did the bits outside.

Edited by Rolandrat (Thu 09-Apr-20 10:41:37)

Yes I can see that I can't even order it on the BT site yet. They don't even acknowledge that I can get it.

The Openreach DSLChecker informs me
WBC FTTP Upto 1000 Upto 220 -- Available KCI2 Assure --

But BT's site just gives me FTTC options. I don't know if this is a lag in updates or wether it just won't show this product until Openreach start accepting new installations.

I assume I will have to wait until June to order unless you can ring up and put an order in over the phone.

P.s. someone mentioned something about emailing think broadband so they can update the coverage maps?

Try over the phone, BT website took them all off, it shows no FTTP products for me also.

The thinkbroadband maps for me updated yesterday so took less than a week, automatically.

Edited by Rolandrat (Thu 09-Apr-20 10:56:12)

Thank you

P.S. what router are you using?

I'm confused over getting hardware capable of 1Gbps throughput.

I keep reading that most consumer routers have a typical NAT throughput limit of between 300Mbps and 600Mbps.

Firstly don't you need NAT to give all local users a local IP to route WAN traffic to them?

So if that's the case what should I use to be able to achieve 1Gbps?

I see online tests where they put the router in fasthpath, but doesn't that remove have issues for security?

I cant really comment on consumer grade routers im afraid.
Im a bit of a geek in my home I have a 10Gbe network using mainly Unifi access points and switches, not all are 10Gbe switches but I have a 10Gbe link to my garage which has a rack with 10Gbe PC and various Synology NAS boxes (I backup everything with replication and snapshots).

My Study rack has a 10Gbe Synology NAS and my PC is 10Gbe also, I also run EXSI VM server which is dual 10Gbe.

For routing I have a Draytek 3910, which is about 9Gbe NAT throughput and has 10Gbe upload to my main switch.
We also have Cityfibre here as well as OR FTTP, so plan is to feed 900Mbps x 2 to my network.

None of the above is cheap, there's probably at least £7k+, probably more in kit once I add up all the hard drives etc in the NAS's

If you are getting the service from BT then the Smart Hub 2 they provide should be able to support the speeds they are selling.

Not automatic - a human (me) is distinctly involved

Apologies, I used automatically in the sense I didnt have to tell anyone.

I thought I’d give it a week and see if the order systems updated

BT wholesale DSLChecker says I can get FTTP as does the Openreach site.

BTs site still has no info on full fibre for me

Decided to ring today, even the sales team says I can’t get it.

I assume they have not updated the database for newly covered properties because it needs an engineer visit. Is this plausible?

Edited by oldskool (Tue 14-Apr-20 17:59:38)

FTTP for nearly all new installations requires an Openreach engineer to enter the premises.

Due to the Covid-17 virus they basically are not doing that, so nearly all ISPs have removed FTTP availability from their websites. I assume that is far simpler than making amendments to their ordering systems.

It could also possibly require work in the headend exchange, and I get the impression that isn't too popular with Openreach at the moment for the same reason.

BT Consumer is not likely to take a new order for FTTP until June now - small matter of the pandemic

Makes sense thank you

No rush here considering other priorities.

Just curious to see if BT can offer it.

Thanks

Have you tried checkers at other ISPs which resell FTTP, e.g. Aquiss, Zen, AAISP?

It's still probably impractical for you to get FTTP before June, but at least they'll confirm it's available.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

FTTP for nearly all new installations requires an Openreach engineer to enter the premises.

yep bar new house builds

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Due to the Covid-17 virus they basically are not doing that, so nearly all ISPs have removed FTTP availability from their websites. I assume that is far simpler than making amendments to their ordering systems.

Hopefully covid-17 will catch up with covid-19. Anyhoo yes you are right on the isp front, a quick change on the website front end and back end will stop fttp orders

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It could also possibly require work in the headend exchange, and I get the impression that isn't too popular with Openreach at the moment for the same reason.

I doubt they could adhear to a 20cm distance in an exchange ..

LOL re the Covid number. )