FTTP Build - Missed Pole

So Lightsource on behalf of OpenReach have been installing FTTP to the poles in my area and last week they finally came down my road, however they skipped over the pole connecting my house and moved onto the next!
The next day I asked the guy working on the next pole whether they just missed mine by accident, and apparently they skipped it because it's a 'D' Pole and they aren't allowed to touch them - he didn't give me any more info than that - no schedule for if or when it will be replaced.

Now this wouldn't be too bad but yesterday I walked past a different pole further down my street (installed before mine part) and that has FTTP equipment on it and a big red D nailed to it too which contradicts him somewhat.

Has anyone had this happen to them - is there a timeline for replacing the poles marked with the dreaded 'D' ? If they do replace it will they retrofit the FTTP equipment to it ?

I checked the plate nailed to my pole and it as 6/20 stamped out and the letters A,B,F,G stamped out too - I'm guessing that means what's wrong with it ? Perhaps the other D pole with FTTP has different letters, I'll have to check.

in my neck of the woods the cbt,s were not put on every pole , presumably because properties can be fed from poles not immediately close to the house

How far to the next pole to your D pole ? The overhead kits come in 33, 55, 105, 160 and 360m flavours .... could it not be fed from the next CBT down , then spanned off of your D pole ?

Overhead fixings are allowed to replaced like for like, that would be replacing one with another.

The D on yours could be due to, for instance, a close by spiked fence, whereas the other D pole might be due to low wires .... not really a lot to be said without actually seeing the poles in their environment.

Depends on why it's a D pole or if it's just a carrier pole.

The previous pole down is about 60-70m away so in theory they could wire me up from there, it's weird though because about 3 years ago they put a little manhole at the bottom of the pole and there is blue pull-through string tied around the bottom so it looks like they intended to do it but the 'D' ness stopped them.

So in theory when the street goes live I should be able to put an order in and OR will sort it out then or does the checker know that my current DP is plain copper and stop me ordering?

Just worried that we're going to end up an island of 10 houses on 30mb in a sea of FTTP :'(

There's no obvious reason (to me anyway) why it would be a D pole - there's no fence next to it and there's a fairly even distribution of 10 wires on it; 5 going across the road and 5 on this side. Perhaps it's too shallow or the manhole they installed a few years ago destabilized it ?

I wouldn't worry about it, my FTTP fibre feed comes from a different pole than the one the landline is attached to. As long as the next nearest pole is within the distance of the fibre cables used by the underlying network of the ISP you sign up with, you'll be fine.

There could be many reasons for a D pole, damage that may not be visible, decay of the wood that a resistive app has picked up (again may not be visible to the eye), D because the pole is shallow. Some D poles can be cabled through but no equipment (joints or CBTs).

Like others have said the CBT doesn’t need to be outside your property it can be upto around 150m away (includes the lead into the property).

I wouldn’t worry.

So they were out and about this week connecting things up and I had a look at the checker this morning.

Houses connected to the pole 1 down from mine = WBC FTTP
Houses connected to the pole 1 up from mine = WBC FTTP
Houses connected to my pole = FTTP On Demand (1000/220). This has gone up from FTTPoD 330/30 last time I checked.

So it would seem that even if it was the intention that they could wire me from the pole 1 down I can't order it so they will never do that :'(

Any ideas what to do now ?

Unless I'm wrong, but normally FTTPoD stays 300/30 even if its capable of 1000/220.. To me it sounds like a database error,

What cbts(as in connector count) are on the adjacent poles, and how many properties? ie, adjacent pole 12 port cbt, and only 6 properties and the other side another 12 port cbt but 8 properties, thus both poles would then be able to serve yours.

In reply to a post by Taras:

Unless I'm wrong, but normally FTTPoD stays 300/30 even if its capable of 1000/220..

No, there are definitely properties which show FTTPoD 1000/220. Other properties in my street are examples of this.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Taras:

Unless I'm wrong, but normally FTTPoD stays 300/30 even if its capable of 1000/220..

No, there are definitely properties which show FTTPoD 1000/220. Other properties in my street are examples of this.

Ahh interesting, as mine is 330, despite that i've got a hanging cbt unlit outside my house

I'm not sure that's relevant, because if it was a feeder pole they would have marked me as WBC FTTP

For example, down the street, on a true feeder pole (i.e. no wire coming out of the ground and running up the pole) there are CBTs on the main pole and the properties connected to the feeder pole are showing as WBC FTTP.

My pole is a true pole, there is a jointing frame in the ground below next to it, it has blue string tied around the bottom and the copper feed cable runs out of the duct and up the pole to a copper joint box that feeds the 10 properties.

I had a look at the CBTs anyway and they seem suitable for the number of properties already connected to those poles (i.e. no extra ports)

Edited by deleted (Sun 23-Aug-20 14:33:01)

In reply to a post by moosekebab:

My pole [...] has blue string tied around the bottom

Sounds like they cleared the duct ready for pulling fibre through, but haven't gotten around to finishing off the job.

I would fill out this form and for question number 9, answer "I can't get fibre but my neighbours can". I've used this several times successfully to update the database without too much hassle, whereby you can then order a connection. Once the engineer on the ground arrives to install, they will make the call as to whether they can install from the pole/CBT further away from you.

Have you spoke to the guys installing all this gear, I did when the contractors where installing our fibre and they told me a lot also ended up with my own CBT in my own Manhole

I'd guess this all goes back to the D pole issue from your original post. Having Googled Openreach D pole there's at least some information about them. Why one D pole in the street has had the CBT attached is anyone's guess (maybe someone can decipher the label meanings if you post what the second one is also). Perhaps they were able to add the equipment by cherry picker to this, whilst yours doesn't allow any new equipment.

There seem to be two classes of D pole, those that they plan to change in the next 2 years, and those which are safe enough as they are and don't need changing (apart from to allow new equipment to be added!). Either way you'd hope Openreach would schedule in the swap of any D poles preventing them completing a Fibre First (or BDUK) blanket coverage type rollout.... there must be a fair few poles like these. Have you checked one.network, the roadworks website, to see if any works to replace the pole (or any others in your locality) have been scheduled? You will need to register to see the 12mo into the future option.

Edited by deleted (Sun 23-Aug-20 23:48:07)

I've been watching the rollout on one.network there were various digs to clear ducts and I've seen at least 3 pole replacements and some additions on other streets that were made while they were fitting CBTs - I didn't see these poles before replacement though so no idea if they were legacy D poles or what.

Nothing for my pole to be replaced within 12 months - I'll have to walk down and look at the plate on that other D pole and see when it was D'd.

They did all the CBTs with 2 cherry picker vans so access wasn't an issue - it's a straightforward roadside pole with no external hazards.

I've filled in the openreach contact form anyways and I'll update if/when I get a reply.

So the offending D pole down the street which has a fibre CBT and the properties connected to it are available has a D plate on it with the exact same markings as mine - 06/20 ABFG

And the reply from openreach is about as useful as a D pole with no CBT. I get the feeling they just looked at my postcode and didn't actually read my query.

Thank you for getting in touch with your query.

We’ve looked in to this for you and we can confirm that your location is included in one of our rural build projects in KIRKBURTON for Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) installation.

Although the project is already underway, we will only be able to establish whether your address will be included or provide any further information on the build programme once the full survey process has been completed.

These surveys can take 3-6 months to complete, but once we can confirm the areas included in the programme, we will be in touch with more information about FTTP and the programme in this area.

In the meantime, you can find out more about fibre first on our website.

Kind regards,

Fibre Enquires Team
Openreach

EDIT: Does anyone know if you can reply to these emails or am I going to have to fill in the form again?

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Aug-20 14:01:20)

Update: This morning one.network reports they are replacing the pole on Tuesday/Wednesday next week!

I wonder if this was because of my emails or whether they planned to do it anyway...

Next step, make sure they put a CBT on it!

Thats good news, am sure yours will be done long before you hear back from Openreach then!

Just an update, they changed the pole last week but there's still no sign of the team coming back to put the CBT on and wire it up. The duct is still exposed and the blue string is tied around the new pole so hopefully they are intending to come back....

They will come back at some point to finish it (assuming your postcode shows as coming soon?)

In our area, they seemed to have everything divided up into work packs and various different teams would come at different times, and sometimes nobody would be around for a couple of weeks.

In our street, they came along and marked all the work points. Then a team came along and ran cables from the aggregation node to splitters and put CBTs in some of the manholes for newer build properties, but not on our poles for the older properties (apparently not pole trained). Then a team came along with a cherry picker van and did the CBTs and nodes on our pole a couple of weeks later. That was 3 weeks ago and I haven't seem them since! It has also been holiday season which doesn't help with the availability of engineers either.

As a side note - you also don't know whether they are having to work on sub-ducting and blowing a new spine cable before they can light up the splitters. In our case they are in the process of blowing a new spine cable around 8km from the headend exchange. They've been working on it for a while and it's now fully sub-ducted apart from two blockages that have got to be cleared.

Keeping an eye on local roadworks is also a good way to get an idea of how much progress they're making.

Just an update for anyone that's going through this or might be interested.
Checker went live for me on 27/10 and install is booked for 12/11 !

Here's the full timeline:
7/8/20 - Main street cabling completed, pole missed, spoke to installer and told about 'D' pole
16/8/20 - Main street commissioned
23/8/20 - Checker updated and rest of street is live
1/9/20 - Pole replaced
30/9/20 - CBT installed
5/10/20 - CBT commissioned and tested
27/10/20 - Checker updated and install booked
12/11/20 - install?

So looking back it appears because of the 'D' pole it's taken an extra 2 months over everyone else.