FTTPoD - Survey and Installation Questions

Hi folks

This is my first post and I'm not sure if I have picked the right forum - apologies if not.

I'm investigating a linked FTTPoD order for the street and have some questions about the survey and installation.

With the survey, the street is about 25 years old with developer-installed ducts to beside the front doors, capped off with grey OR conduit to a master socket on the other side of the wall. I'd expect that the ducts are in good condition. Will the surveyor talk to each homeowner to discuss access and the positioning of the ONT, or will they just plan to use the existing duct and put the CSP immediately above and the ONT on the inside wall?

I have read the Openreach developer guide and with the box containing the ONT and BBU the installation looked neat with somewhere to coil the excess fibre. I understand that the box and BBU have now gone and I have seen photos of the ONT on the wall with a coil of fibre hanging underneath with a couple of twist ties. This looks very vulnerable - is that how installations are now done? If I want the ONT somewhere other than directly behind the CSP, what are the restrictions on running the internal fibre - can it be surface run with cable clips, or behind plasterboard, or should it be in conduit? And will Openreach provide the connectorised internal fibre in advance so I could run it before they do the final connection?

Many thanks for your help,

Nick

An FTTPoD order is for a single service, to a single property. Are you possibly part of a community fibre scheme ?

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The fit (ONT to external splice point) certainly won’t be hidden in a wall cavity - unless prior to install you provide a suitable tubing with a draw cord in it.

Hi

I had a standard consumer installation in January, not FTTPoD, so your experience may be different.That said ...

Before installation I had conduit with copper emerging from the floor inside my house. I had a two stage installation - in the first appointment the OR person pulled fibre in to my house from outside using that same conduit. In the second the (same) person then fitted the ONT directly to the wall, and fitted the CSP outside in the ground, I assume at the other end of the conduit. I originally had a "couple of twists" as you put it of fibre at the ONT, but I had a fibre failure the day after installation, so another engineer came out and re-terminated and removed the twists.

I was happy to have the ONT directly above the conduit termination, so placement was not a problem for me. However, the OR was happy to contemplate surface running the cable to pretty much anywhere I wanted within reason. Others may be able to comment on OR's willingness to run through conduit.

My strong suspicion is that OR will not provide fibre in advance to a residential premises. However, there have been a few people who have bought their own connectorised extension fibre lengths from the likes of fs.com and moved the ONT themselves. Really, unless the ONT is in a wildly unsuitable place, there is little advantage in this - you may as well just run some cat5e/6 to the ONT.

Also, note that BBUs are not supplied these days

Edited by deleted (Sun 24-May-20 09:59:49)

In reply to a post by PianSomB:

fitted the CSP outside in the ground

This comment intrigued me, if you have a CSP is it not on a wall somewhere?

To be honest, I have no idea where my CSP is. It's certainly not on any of my external walls or anywhere visible. By deduction, I assume it is in the ground somewhere.

As I said, I have fibre emerging from ducting into my house. I don't seem to be able to post photos here, but if you are a member of ispreview then look at this. You should be able to see the copper emerging bottom left and the fibre right next to it going to the ONT

Edited by deleted (Sun 24-May-20 10:59:37)

Maybe you don't have a CSP, ie have a direct connectorized cable from ONT to DP?

This is what my CSP looks like, was installed in 2017:

https://imgur.com/a/E2JILwM

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

"An FTTPoD order is for a single service, to a single property. Are you possibly part of a community fibre scheme ? "

I thought that too, but talking to Cerberus you can link several FTTPoD orders which has a significant effect on the cost. As long as the houses are close together and the installations done at the same time, the extra cost of connecting them is minimal and OR give a £700 rebate for every one after the first. Coupled with the Rural Gigabit Voucher scheme I'm hoping to get the build cost close to zero, which just leaves a year of Cerberus' rather pricey charges as the 'installation cost'. Cerberus seem particularly well set up for handling these multiple orders and promote them enthusiastically.

No CSP is possible as way the way things were done for a while.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

No CSP is possible as way the way things were done for a while.

Fair enough.

But this was only 3-4 months ago

That is what it looks like - the black sleeve is to protect the fibre outside but once it reaches your premises, that has to be stripped off leaving the white inner sleeve. Something to do with fire regs, I believe and I read that the move to CSPs was partly to save the time it takes to strip the outer, plus to save having to re-run the fibre back to the DP or do a new splice if the internal cable gets damaged.