FTTP Installation Question

Hi all,

FTTP has finally gone live for our property! Woo! We placed an order on the 8th and have an installation date of the 22nd. The BT Broadband Availability Checker states; "Single Dwelling Unit Residential OH Feed joint user pole." Should I be at all concerned about the pole being "joint user"? Because normally it says "no anticipated issues", instead.

Cheers,

Will

‘Joint user pole’ means that the CBT is mounted on a pole which is owned by the power company, but Openreach have an agreement to site their copper/fibre equipment on it.

The installer will require a 2nd safety man for when they climb the pole. It’ll most likely say this on the job notes. If not, it’s no biggie, it is a tried and tested process to access these poles.

Don’t fret.

Hope you don’t get a contractor

Thanks, Zarjaz!

You may remember a thread of mine a while back, where I mentioned that there is a pole between the one with the CBT on and our property (our copper feed goes overhead to the nearest pole then DIG to the property). It looks like the fibre will be going OH between these poles and then continuing in the same vein, onto the property, instead of going underground, like the copper does. The pole nearest the property has definitely got a power cable on it, but not so sure about the one with the CBT on. Maybe there is one on it, but it's not easily identifiable. I think I'm overthinking this, haha!

The only contractor I have seen working around here with OR is BNE, but I think they only do the actual "rollout stuff", not the installs. Are contractors known to mess these types of installs up?

Edited by Grimers (Sun 12-Sep-21 20:15:08)

I can't be 100% certain but I thought I've seen some forum threads in the past where they've had either Kelly's Communications or M.J. Quinn instead of Openreach. If you don't get an actual Openreach engineer doing the installation, instead of one of the above, you may find problems with your installation or perhaps no job done at all. These two companies appear to be notorious for messing things up or not doing the job right, so hopefully you'll get someone who's actually from Openreach to do your installation.

Good luck! Have some coffee/tea and biscuits on standby, unless COVID 'stuff' doesn't allow this that is.

Cheers! Fingers crossed! Don't worry, I'll make sure that they're fed and watered, if like you say, it's allowed! Should be now, I would've thought!

I hope you do not get the cowboy from M J Quinn I had, because they will reject it.

Why would they reject it?

I'm sure they will think of something.

The BT Openreach chap I was talking to last week had no good word for them (Quins) at all and Kelly's, He been sent out to do a job that Quins had rejected as there were tree branches in the way, He had no problem doing the FTTP install at all for a neighbor .

M J Quinn and Kellys are paid per job for FTTP installs by Openreach, so if the job looks like it might take a bit longer they find a reason to reject it and go off to the next quick job to get their cash.

Mine was rejected due to a blocked duct, it wasn’t but look a lot of work and time to get the rope in and then the fibre fed, so far more time than the fixed rate would have paid for with Quinn’s.

Kellys work for some of the altnets doing installs and the feedback there seems much better, both ways too as their guys seem happier working with them too.

The fact that you are fed from a joint user pole, i.e. phone and electricity supply may be in your favour, Openreach have particular safety rules for working on these poles, I suspect that the contractors would not be allowed near them. If you do get a contractor they will probably turn the job down.