Understanding one.network info

I've been trying to understand what some of the information means on Openreach roadworks notices.

For example a lot of the fibre deployments contain info in the format below and I was wonder its exact meaning and how that relates to the rollout and if its used in the Openreach back end systems to provide ongoing service.

Exchange V1234 - PON 567890

I suspect the PON number is a unique PON identifier but is it unique within the headend exchange or unique across the whole of Openreach, the V number what is its meaning I just can't figure that out.

Edit: From other stuff I've just looked at the V number isn't unique across the Openreach network or maybe not across a head end exchange either although it maybe unique to the legacy exchange area.

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Feb-22 12:32:55)

Better to use https://bidb.uk/ for looking at telecoms related roadworks. That pulls from other sources so often gives more information, as well as giving information from areas that aren't subscribed to one.network.

Dect

PON appears to be unique.

V xxxx is likely to be unique to exchange BUT I cannot work out if that is Headend or legacy. Common sense says that it should be Headend.as legacy will disappear at some point.

( If V is only between 1 and 4094 they are Management VLAN identities but I expect them to something else).

I would expect the PON number to be used in OR OSS to enable remote management, customer provision, and all record keeping. BT is very big ( and very good) on automation so once FTTP is provided many changes will be no touch. Pretty sure this happens in New builds when someone moves in, An order can be provided without any physical touch if the ISP has integrated it systems with the OR order gateway.

In reply to a post by dogcat:

Better to use https://bidb.uk/ for looking at telecoms related roadworks. That pulls from other sources so often gives more information, as well as giving information from areas that aren't subscribed to one.network.

That site actually has less information for my area, no descriptions at all. Although it does seem to show what stretch of road is being covered which one.network does not.

In reply to a post by alexatkin:

In reply to a post by dogcat:

Better to use https://bidb.uk/ for looking at telecoms related roadworks. That pulls from other sources so often gives more information, as well as giving information from areas that aren't subscribed to one.network.

That site actually has less information for my area, no descriptions at all. Although it does seem to show what stretch of road is being covered which one.network does not.

The stretch of road I think is misleading, on my road it never showed more than a tiny spec, but they did the works previous week during the night (although my council stubbornly refusing to divert traffic and also not wanting to upset the residents more have resorted to having night time roadworks done without notice which might explain it), this also included a side street next to me where half of it was marked but the entire street had works done.

Cityfibre tend to enable multiple streets at a time in batches, the last roadworks in my block of streets up to a natural barrier ends 25th feb, so fingers crossed for me on that date onwards.

I prefer it to one network as the roadworks shown are just telecoms, vs all the water works, pathways etc. on one network, in addition it also shows activated properties which is useful for seeing areas where FTTP has been turned on and how close those are. It basically combines status checker, tbb coverage map and filtered telecoms one network into one.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 13-Feb-22 07:14:36)

In reply to a post by alexatkin:

That site actually has less information for my area, no descriptions at all. Although it does seem to show what stretch of road is being covered which one.network does not.

Use this one https://mast-works.davwheat.dev/ put zoom out and look for your area and zoom in more often until u see OR on it.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

V xxxx is likely to be unique to exchange BUT I cannot work out if that is Headend or legacy. Common sense says that it should be Headend.as legacy will disappear at some point.

( If V is only between 1 and 4094 they are Management VLAN identities but I expect them to something else).

Hi kitcat

The examples I have seen have been in the 6000 and 8000 ranges but I do remember seeing this list a few years ago which contains some more in other ranges.

Edit: Interestingly the link has some duplicates V numbers although I can't tell if they are duplicates on the same headend exchange.

ASHURST V5013
BASSETT V5013
HAMBLEDON V5013

Edited by deleted (Sun 13-Feb-22 11:50:42)

Dect

They look like structure numbers so likely to be splitters.

Intuition ( from long years of working with/on BT OSS systems ) says that they started numbering at 1 but then realised that this was confusing with other numbering so then started at 50xx, so an exchange could have V1 and then V5002 but not V5001. So you could prefix all those not V50xx with V50 and make them all the same sequence.

Does not look like unique to a head end but could be made that way if the low numbers are prefixed with V51xx / V52xx.

It is very common not to think about long term identifiers when introducing new Tech and end up with non unique ones, especially when you have several planning teams dealing with different areas. ( Think exchange codes having to be made unique by prefixing with CSS area. .

Some roadworks, duct clearing for R100

Drongan V8021

Drongan V8010

DRONGAN V8014

Drongan is the name of the nearest exchange, the exchange has a number of FTTP available postcodes in the built up area surrounding it. All the R100 roadworks activity is Rural with a June 2022 go live date.

Edited by kommando (Sun 13-Feb-22 13:59:19)

kitcat

Every time I've seen a V number its always been prefixed with the legacy exchange area so I suspect that would make it unique although it does seem to be a bit backwards if that is the method of uniqueness they have chosen.

As there can be up to 4 splitters in a housing do you think the V number refers to just one splitter or all the splitters within the housing?

Edited by deleted (Sun 13-Feb-22 22:21:59)

Openreach label all properties in a Node (upto 120) as a single PON.

Dect

Not enough info to know it could be either.

The naming would be what happened and nobody considered the long term view of exchange closure. ( Tactical planning was never part of OR ) chosen is not a descriptor I would use..

As of today, one.network is severely limiting the information on display unless you have a paid account. A while back they stopped showing detail of telecom works, now they don't even show there is any telecom works at all.
Shame, I enjoyed seeing FTTP not come to my home 🤷‍♂️😂

Have you tried the maps at https://streetguide.co.uk/welcome ?

I don't really see the argument for making this information private - it's happening on public land and we all pay council tax, surely the data should be freely available.

You could try bidb.uk - but checking now, my local area seems to be suspiciously quiet.

It could be that the public APIs which used to give out this data have been locked down

That's a new one for me, so thanks. I can again check it every day in the hope that FTTP finally comes 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️😂

In reply to a post by candlerb:

You could try bidb.uk - but checking now, my local area seems to be suspiciously quiet.

It could be that the public APIs which used to give out this data have been locked down

I've pinged Marcus over at ISPR at it appears the one.network issue is propagated at bidb

In reply to a post by Irby:

As of today, one.network is severely limiting the information on display unless you have a paid account. A while back they stopped showing detail of telecom works, now they don't even show there is any telecom works at all.
Shame, I enjoyed seeing FTTP not come to my home 🤷‍♂️😂

This has been on the cards for a while. I've posted abbot it previously.

It's an another daft decision by our utterly rubbish and not fit for purpose government. This time the DfT being [censored] stupid and using data protection as an excuse.

Top right it says "Failed to fetch One.network API data." but still a nice site, thanks.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

It's an another daft decision by our utterly rubbish and not fit for purpose government. This time the DfT being [censored] stupid and using data protection as an excuse.

I think this needs an independent citation - not the answer published by one.network themselves.

*Clearly* it's in one.network's interest to withhold this information from the public, to ensure that their customers (councils etc) cough up for a full subscription. As you say, data protection is just an excuse - this is not *personal* data.

https://onenetworkhq.medium.com/all-change-at-street...

https://uk.one.network/news-events/street-manager-wh...

I can probably find the dFT references too

As a member of the public you can register for free and then see some of the info as before. I assume that there will be some restrictions on the amount of access.

Yeah, I already read those. I may be cynical, but I don't believe that's why they made these changes.

"Open government" demands more sharing about what is being done with the infrastructure that we pay for, not less.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Yeah, I already read those. I may be cynical, but I don't believe that's why they made these changes.

"Open government" demands more sharing about what is being done with the infrastructure that we pay for, not less.

I guess TfL must be breaking the law: they provide all the details for London streetworks. http://public.londonworks.gov.uk/roadworks/home

In reply to a post by adslmax:

In reply to a post by alexatkin:

That site actually has less information for my area, no descriptions at all. Although it does seem to show what stretch of road is being covered which one.network does not.

Use this one https://mast-works.davwheat.dev/ put zoom out and look for your area and zoom in more often until u see OR on it.

That's interesting, at first I thought this was the standard one.network, but on their map it just shows Openreach as doing something in our road, this map shows it's replacing pole. Wondered why the road was being closed

In reply to a post by burble:

That's interesting, at first I thought this was the standard one.network, but on their map it just shows Openreach as doing something in our road, this map shows it's replacing pole. Wondered why the road was being closed

https://bidb.uk shows the same data for me as David Wheatley's site, but is faster.

The OR data has reappeared for me on bidb.uk as well.

Not much use for those of you south of the border, but in Scotland you can still access all this information for free at roadworksscotland.org

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Yeah, I already read those. I may be cynical, but I don't believe that's why they made these changes.

"Open government" demands more sharing about what is being done with the infrastructure that we pay for, not less.

Open government. Yeah good one 🤣

Looks like they’re just passing on the cost they’d be charged for access to Street Manager;

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-and-manage-roadworks

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-and-manage-roadworks

Very interesting page, because it says at the bottom:

"Viewing roadworks data

The roadworks data added to this system by companies is available for public viewing free of charge via application programming interface and registration."

which links to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-and-use-roadworks-data

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Very interesting page, because it says at the bottom:

Maybe that is what BIDB uses?

I don’t think Marcus uses that feed. Believe he uses the feed from one.network. You can ask him over at ISPR forums @Msh

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I don’t think Marcus uses that feed. Believe he uses the feed from one.network. You can ask him over at ISPR forums @Msh

Cool

In reply to a post by burble:

Use this one https://mast-works.davwheat.dev/ put zoom out and look for your area and zoom in more often until u see OR on it.

That's interesting, at first I thought this was the standard one.network, but on their map it just shows Openreach as doing something in our road, this map shows it's replacing pole. Wondered why the road was being closed

So useful this thread, thanks everyone. I find this link shows Openreach works' descriptions, but bidb doesn't. Either way, both are great and amazing to see my mum's tiny village in Devon is getting FTTP.