Confused

I went for a walk this morning and in the next road from me there was Openreach van and someone coming up the road with one of those measuring wheels. Saw another bloke in the road after, stopped to speak to him, and he said it was for FTTH. Shocked me as I thought it would be awhile before OR done FTTH here.

Anyway, on the way back I noticed that the bloke i talked to was on a lift pushing fibre/cable, what ever up to the pole and there was a box on the top of the pole. To me, if they started there, it is a strange place to start as it is in the middle of the street.

I went around the corner to the street next to mine, where I saw the men with the measuring wheel and some engineers were in the garden of a block of flats with a load of what looks like fibre.

So is fibre coming up via Open reach or is it just flat that decided to have fibre? i would be surprised if someone in that flat have paid to have Fibre on demand as that is expensive and to be honest the people who live in those flats I would not put as paying out a load of money for fibre.
i suppose there could be a duct in the garden there.


just confused,

I don't think MDUs (flats) are able to order FTTPoD, or I would have a while ago!

What does the block on the top of the pole look like? Is it a CBT with "teats"? That's a very strong indication of FTTP.

Otherwise, someone in the flat *might* have ordered a leased line. But otherwise, maybe it's just as it seems - OR are rolling out fibre. They plan to cover 80% of the UK by end of 2026, so they are cracking on at a pace. Keep an eye on bidb.uk

In reply to a post by candlerb:

What does the block on the top of the pole look like? Is it a CBT with "teats"? That's a very strong indication of FTTP.

Otherwise, someone in the flat *might* have ordered a leased line. But otherwise, maybe it's just as it seems - OR are rolling out fibre. They plan to cover 80% of the UK by end of 2026, so they are cracking on at a pace. Keep an eye on bidb.uk

I just went for a walk and it seems up the long street, which is the second street from my house, they have put this box thing on a few poles and have cable looped and tied to the side of it, with a label saying fibre overhead. So it certainly looks like fibre.
I took some photos, i have put the link below, and as i was taking them someone came out of a house and asked me if I was taking photos of their house, I knew it would happen, i explained what I was doing and showed them the photos. i would do the same thing. Anyway he told me he saw some people from Zzoomm there as well, which is strange since zzoomm is supposed to be going underground and why would Open reach be there?


Link for photos, they are not great, I had the sun shining and I could nto see the screen of the phone, I was going to take the other cameras out, but I could not be bothered, ignore the photos of the cabinet, that was for something else.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjGwcUuY

Look like OR CBTs on a standoff bracket in the last photo. 3rd photo looks like a cable joint.

The dome-shaped thing is likely a track joint. The 5th and 6th photos do appear to show a CBT - you can see the caps with their retaining clips on the CBT ports - as well as what looks like some third-party fibre hardware.

It's quite possible you're getting both OR FTTP and Zzooom.

Zzoomm will most likely deliver via OR poles, if that's how OR are delivering to properties in that area (because there are no lead-in ducts)

Yep, the domed thing is a copper ‘universal clip joint’

The silver strips give the unique CBT ID numbers, so can be read from the ground. (It took soooooo long for some bright spark to come up with this)

Those cabinets pictured are, in my opinion, nothing to do with Openreach FTTP

Not seen Zzoomm provide overhead round this way. Trooli, Toob, yes

Those pole tops are going to get pretty busy when all those fibre drops from Zzoomm and OR start getting connected up!

In reply to a post by candlerb:

The dome-shaped thing is likely a track joint. The 5th and 6th photos do appear to show a CBT - you can see the caps with their retaining clips on the CBT ports - as well as what looks like some third-party fibre hardware.

It's quite possible you're getting both OR FTTP and Zzooom.

Zzoomm will most likely deliver via OR poles, if that's how OR are delivering to properties in that area (because there are no lead-in ducts)

Zzoomm seems to be doing the rest of the city so far via underground, so a bit of a surprise if they are going above ground, but they must have a deal with BT to use their poles, because surly they are not using the rest of open reach infrastructure? zzoomm is network suppose to be better than Open reach by all accounts.

We will wait and see, I prefer the overhead idea to be honest, no digging in the garden if I decided to go for it, but I am sicking with what I have said in the past at the moment, that I don't feel I need it. But still good to see it happening.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Those pole tops are going to get pretty busy when all those fibre drops from Zzoomm and OR start getting connected up!

Surly it will be either zzoomm or OR to each property, so it will be the same amount?

i presume the coiled up cable is going to be put down into the ground at some point, mind you it looks like they have put a connection from one pole to another. I presume a zzoomm cabinet will go somewhere.

It is interesting and as i said above, great for people who will get used out of it, the problem is with the way the cost of living is increasing, I wonder how many people will be able to afford FTTH.