Only half of neighbours have FTTP connection points?

Cityfibre dug up the pavements three months ago to lay fibre but only provided connection points on the pavement (those little black metal flaps similar to gas/water ones which name escapes me) leading to the front of the properties. But they only did this to every other property on this street, not all of them. I am one of those that didn't get a connection point unfortunately, while both of my next door neighbours do.

Around the same time I got a letter (twice) from Lightning Fibre, saying they were due to work on my street but nothing has happened since, its like they've forgotten.

Can two properties share a Cityfibre connection point, or did Cityfibre and Lightning Fibre have a contract contest and both ended up agreeing to serve only half the properties instead? Pavements would have to be dug up again.. seems like a huge waste of resources. Could they not just share the underground cables?

Quite confused by the whole thing, I would prefer to use Cityfibre so I have a choice of ISPs rather than be stuck with one local company whose reputation I'm really unsure of right now.

Edited by Aaron_01 (Thu 25-Aug-22 12:33:53)

In common parlance, what you describe is known as a ‘Tommy Pot’

Whether City fibres version allows for provision of two fibres, I don’t know.

Surely the easiest way to check (if they are already live down your street) would be to place an order with them. Have you tried this yet ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In common parlance, what you describe is known as a ‘Tommy Pot’

I always thought they were known as a Toby box.

They're not live yet so can't check, both websites availability checkers do say they're coming soon.

bidb.uk shows nothing at the present time. Back in May it did show scheduled roadworks by cityfibre and lightning fibre for my road.

Yes it's pretty common for both Cityfibre and Virgin to serve more than 1 property from a single Toby point.
When it's done like this the Toby is usually placed on the boundary between 2 properties and will serve both.

It's a little unusual if the Toby isn't actually on the boundary of your property and they would need to cut across the neighbours garden to reach you.

In reply to a post by dect:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In common parlance, what you describe is known as a ‘Tommy Pot’

I always thought they were known as a Toby box.

That’s the joy of common parlance …

I believe you may know what is referred to as 81’s at work …… but no one seems to recall if it is 81’s or 8T1’s

Sleeve dropwiring are called whistles round here, but in a bordering county where I started, they are known as Bill Browns.

As in so very many things, the answers are often not just black or white, but all shades of grey in between.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I believe you may know what is referred to as 81’s at work …… but no one seems to recall if it is 81’s or 8T1’s

Yes I know what 81's are and still refer to them in that way even now after many years away from BT but you're right they could in fact be 8T1’s

Most splendid they are too, there are times when your 81’s/8T1’s are exactly the right thing to use.

Fairly sure they were 81s from the original tools list in early GPO days.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In common parlance, what you describe is known as a ‘Tommy Pot’

Whether City fibres version allows for provision of two fibres, I don’t know.

Surely the easiest way to check (if they are already live down your street) would be to place an order with them. Have you tried this yet ?

From what I’ve seen of the AltNets at least Gigaclear refer to theirs as “pots”.

Virgin literature refers to them as Toby

Whilst we’re on parlance - is it AltNet or Altnet (or oh my god net!) 🤣