Fibre is certainly on it's way

Been some roadworks near to where I work for a couple of weeks or so and today they have dug up at the side of the cycle path and have ditches across the cycle path, they have covered them, so people can still use the path.
The fibre don't seem to be buried very deep at the side of the path and only in mud, I fear that the tree roots will get to it eventually, and I hope what ever they put the fibre into is waterproof because it floods there when it rains as the council can't be bothered to clean the drains.
So yes it seems like they are getting on with it, it is about time this city had fibre to be honest

and I hope what ever they put the fibre into is waterproof because it floods there when it rains as the council can't be bothered to clean the drains.

Water ingress doesn’t affect fibre like it does copper.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Water ingress doesn’t affect fibre like it does copper.

That is true, but what about any boosters they stick in the link there? I also still think that the trees roots will do something to the fibre, there are a lot of trees there, on the left-hand side the fibre is being laid.

But as I said, it will be nice for people who need the faster speed, I never thought I would see the day, I don't know if the exchange have anything to do with them digging there, I have no idea if a non-BT fibre company even touches the exchange., it just seems to be a strange place to be digging, it is a pretty large hole where they started
Link to photo here,not great as it was very dark, I was coming home from work at 10pmish.

I dont think anyone will be putting active equipment in a sub surface duct. Active equipment, if used here, is going to be in a surface mounted cabinet or structure. PON equipment i.e. not powered , is going to be in subsurface structure like a joint box, or surface mounted.

There's no 'boosters' as such with (Openreach based) FTTP - the network is completely passive. That's why its called a PON - Passive Optical Network.

The only electronics are in the headend exchange and in the small white (ONT) box inside the premises.

The rest along the way is just protected glass fibre, splices, splitters and connectors. None of which are powered much less have any electronics inside.

Cheers to both of you, I am not all that clued-up on fibre, no need to be as i thought we would never have it here, I will have to read a bit about it.
I thought that above a certain length there would need to be some sort of system to boast it, even light will fade after a certain distance.
I never thought about more cabinets, I wonder where they will put them.

This is not Open reach, it is a company called Zzoomm, they put a box on the wall outside, which is I presume is the ONT, then they put two hub type things indoors.

I hope they have made a better job of the covers on the bike track today as I am on late, so coming back home at 10pm, and it is pretty dark there.

Zzoomm is an alt net (alternative network provider). They run their own fibre infrastructure, rather than use for example Openreach's.

It looks as though they use a direct-burial system - that is the micro ducts that will have the fibre bundles blown down them are buried directly in the verge/footpath without a surrounding protective external duct. This is faster and cheaper than installing a network of rigid ducts and chambers - and then running blown-fibre micro ducts inside these ducts.

The box on the outside wall will be a splice or connection point, between the external cabling and the internal building cabling. The ONT basically a 'fibre modem' will be installed internally where there is power available (and it is out of the weather).

Unprotected tubes shallow buried will get damaged and fill with water and later block with silt. In my view it has always been a mistake to build on the cheap and nasty.

I realise that Zzoomm runs their own fibre infrastructure, like virgin and gigaclear.

i had a look at some videos, one of them showing open reach installation, they use a drop cable and the video I saw had the cable going into a box indoors, which is a Gpon terminal and then that is going to a plusnet router. I read that GPon is just a faster version of a PoN, the splitters was in the ground under a cover.

So Zzoomm box on outside is not active at all? The unit they are using on the inside for the connection from the fibre is a Smart/Rg SR400ac, which looks like a normal router, in fact it says router on the instructions and there is also a second one of these installed where even the customer want, so they have good Wi-fi all around the house
If I go for it, I will have one up here in the computer room, then I can connect my computer, printer and NAS directly to the lans on it, save having the network switch I have here.

It is all pretty interesting, I like learning about things like this, i set up a 10Gb/s network at a friends house a few weeks ago and that was a learning curve, used fibre for that, that was fun learning about SFP+ and transceivers and not all transceivers will work with all systems. But we got there in the end, and now she can access her NAS at the speed it is supposed to be access or as good as you can get. Just a shame that most things are still 1Gb/s.

So I learnt something I hope from the couple of videos I have watched, I hope.

Thanks for the info.

Right just an add on to this post, I have been having a look at the zoom website, this is what they say "A little grey ‘Wallbox’ will go on the outside wall of your property and a black ‘Fibre connection box’ will go on the inside of your property. You may want these boxes to be discreet so think where you’d like them to go." then I presume an Ethernet cable will go from the black box to the router.

Also on the street it is not a cabinet, this is also from their website, "We may need to dig a trench. Our Full Fibre network is currently built to the boundary line of your property, you can see this by looking for a small black box in the pavement with ‘Zzoomm’ on it. The first thing our engineers need to do is connect your home to the black box in the ground. This may involve digging a small trench through your front garden (don’t worry we’re neat). But just think, do you have a rosebush you want us to avoid? Or some buried pets? If you can see the black box you can see what route we may take, and you can discuss your options with our engineers when they come to install your service."

Edited by zyborg47 (Tue 02-Feb-21 11:33:20)

In reply to a post by partial:

Unprotected tubes shallow buried will get damaged and fill with water and later block with silt. In my view it has always been a mistake to build on the cheap and nasty.

If I leave early enough for work and I see them and think about it, I will have a chat with them, that is if they want to.

i just wonder where they are going to put the cabinets in the street, if they put them close to BT own cabinets, then mine is a fair distance, unless they put them under the road.

i must admit, when I saw a video of them installing a fibre to someone property, i did think the fibre was a bit close to the surface, they dug a bit of lawn up and then put the fibre just under it and put the lawn back down.