FTTP Install to Upstairs room.

Hi All,
Last time I had a new line installed, because it was a 2nd phone line to the house I managed to convince the Openreach engineer to install the phone line to the upstairs spare room.

I noticed the other day FTTP is available in my area so have ordered this, had no notifications from BT that FTTP was available, but I know CityFibre have been upgrading the network so guess BT got first choice in the ducting?

Eitherway.... do you think I will have any issues with the Openreach engineer fitting the FTTP modem in the upstairs room where this line is currently?
The line enters the house through my garage attic and then in to the side of the house wall in to the spare room. I guess fibre optic cable will need to be run this distance and I am wondering if this will cause an issue?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences.

In reply to a post by Scoot:

I noticed the other day FTTP is available in my area so have ordered this, had no notifications from BT that FTTP was available, but I know CityFibre have been upgrading the network so guess BT got first choice in the ducting?

That's not true. FTTP is available to you either from Openreach, or Cityfibre, or both - depending on whether Openreach or Cityfibre have built their network to cover your property. It's not "first come, first served". You could have both installed simultaneously if you like; some people do.

Whether you can get the line installed to the upstairs room depends on whether it can be done safely. Talk nicely to the engineer on the day, and they'll usually be as accommodating as they can within reason. They might need to drill a hole in your wall for a ladder securing point.

CityFibre are still installing their network in my area and aren't offering or taking orders yet, I don't know what deals have been done but between them and Openreach they are installing new ducting in the area with some sort of grant/funding I believe.
Either-way the only ISP I can find is BT for FTTP currently.

Thanks for the response, the line is already installed upstairs but thats the phone line/copper which is being disconnected. Wonder if they can just use the same holes? or will the copper line remain on place?

Again thanks for responding.

Edited by Scoot (Mon 15-Nov-21 17:26:39)

In reply to a post by Scoot:

CityFibre are still installing their network in my area and aren't offering or taking orders yet

Fair enough, then Openreach FTTP is all you can get. The other large providers who sell over Openreach are Talktalk, Zen, Sky; but they don't necessarily all have interconnect or backhaul at your head-end exchange, or they might just not have updated their databases yet to reflect the newly-available service at your property.

Aside: if Cityfibre are installing their own ducting, then it's normally microducting in narrow trenches. It's bundles of thin purple tubes, each of which can take one very thin fibre cable.

Openreach are apparently using microducting in some places too, but normally OR install larger ducts (about 5cm) through which multiple cables can be pulled.

In reply to a post by Scoot:

Thanks for the response, the line is already installed upstairs but thats the phone line/copper which is being disconnected. Wonder if they can just use the same holes? or will the copper line remain on place?

If it's an overhead feed from a pole, then they'll typically replace it with a "hybrid" drop cable (both fibre and copper). For underground feed via a duct, then they'll normally just pull a separate fibre cable through, and it doesn't necessarily have to enter at the same place as the copper one. In particular, they'll need to choose a place for the ONT which has power next to it. However they *can* run the cable a reasonable distance around the outside of the property if necessary.

This is all just generalisation: you'll find out on the day what the best way to serve your property is.

My area is all ducting to the property. No overheard polls.

I am hoping they are happy to install the fibre to the upstairs room via the previous route the last engineer did. Took some persuading last time and the engineer even had to call his manager to check it was allowed, but being a new customer/line I think they pushed it a little rather than lose a customer. fingers crossed here.

Both the (Openreach) engineers that installed our FTTP earlier this week we great and very accommodating.

The guy that did the second stage even asked if I wanted the ONT further away than I suggested which was better for us but I didn't want to push my luck, it finished up about 10m away from the CSP but on the same floor, hopefully yours will be allowed too!

Or you could just run some Cat5e or Cat6 from the ONT to wherever you want your router. The two are completely separate things and frankly you don't want large amounts of fibre inside your property.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

and frankly you don't want large amounts of fibre inside your property.

Any particular reason why you don't?

Just to come back to this for anyone else reading.

The OpenReach engineeer was happy to route the fibre through the exsisting route with a little help from myself. He pushed the fibre through the old hole in the wall which lead in to my garage attic, and I retrieved it that end and pushed it down through the garage roof and then he tacked it alongside my house wall to the front where the ducting entered the porperty and joined the 2 lines together with a boxon my wall to keep it weather prrof.

It all took about 40 minutes and was no issues for the engineer. Pretty happy all round the the FTTP service too.

In reply to a post by Xuse:

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

and frankly you don't want large amounts of fibre inside your property.

Any particular reason why you don't?

Note much of this stems from the idea of having the router in your "office" which is generally sub optimal anyway. There are three components to a home internet connection. The incomming connection that can be terminated at an ONT in the case of an FTTP connection or a VDSL modem in the case of FTTC for example or even a cable modem in the case of Virgin or for some altnets a media converter.

Then there is the router which actually builds the connection to the ISP. Finally there is the WiFi which can be separate from the router and is in my view best detached from the router anyway as the optimal position of any WiFi access points to get whole house coverage is unlikely to be where the router is.

So I would say on several counts. Firstly it is completely unnecessary, a length of Cat6a is perfectly good for some considerable period of time yet (it's good for 10Gbps) unless you live in a mansion and the router is going to be more than a 100m cable run from the ONT.

Secondly you are baking in a location for the ONT/router that may well be sub optimal in the future. Much easier and cheaper to move a length of Cat6a than calling in Openreach to move some fibre.

Thirdly any damage to the fibre requires waiting for Openreach to visit to fix, meanwhile you have no internet. Much easier to fix/replace some damaged Cat6a.