Interesting pavement works by altnet

Swish are rolling out FTTP in Brackley at the moment and I'm intrigued by what I'm seeing as I walk around. My estate was built a while back but all utilities are underground. I had assumed Swish would mostly use BT ducting but now I'm not sure. There are parts of the estate where Swish' contractors are digging trenches along the pavement despite there being regular BT boxes in the ground. Even more intriguingly some of the Swish trenches include a BT box - some even end at a BT box.

I could understand the need to dig down to the BT ones if they've collapsed but in some areas it looks like they are digging a second set of ducts and linking them to the BT ducts. Given that no new properties have been built on this estate for at least ten years (and in the parts they are currently digging - over 25 years) why would they need to dig so much?

Just curious.

Edited by Andrue (Thu 13-Oct-22 21:32:38)

Could it be that the additional ‘unexplained’ trenches will eventually lead to one of those slender green boxes …. They seem to house nodes of some sort, but not seen in one yet. Swish aren’t in any of the locations I frequent round here, so this is just a guess.

Maybe the BT ducts are at capacity?

Having witnessed Swish install in Marlow, Bucks, it seems that they don't use BT ducts, but install their own. In contrast, F&W networks installed in High Wycombe exclusively used BT ducts.

When I and a neighbour suggested to Gigaclear that they use a BT duct somewhere in Kent to save digging up a private road, we were told that Gigaclear did not do that.

Edited by Michael_Chare (Fri 14-Oct-22 10:36:04)

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

When I and a neighbour suggested to Gigaclear that they use a BT duct somewhere in Kent to save digging up a private road, we were told that Gigaclear did not do that.

I'm going to speculate that Gigaclear are aware of the existence of PIA and which roads are private, Michael

This is just how they've chosen to build their network, Andrue. The altnets range from zero PIA through to all PIA unless the Openreach infrastructure is beyond repair.

The two around here are one on the all PIA end of the scale, Netomnia, and one nearer the other end, CityFibre. The CityFibre deployment here is making heavy use of their own ducts for spine and branch, but using Openreach poles and ducts where possible for customer drops.

That said CityFibre are standing a fair amount of poles of their own as well both for use as drops and, very rarely, carrier poles.

Thanks for the replies. It'll be interesting to see how it continues. Right now based on where I've seen them they aren't using their own trenches everywhere - just in a few places. Perhaps those are just the places where BT ducts are blocked? Or..could an Altnet work with BT to create replacement trenches? Seems unlikely.

Or..could an Altnet work with BT to create replacement trenches? Seems unlikely.

Nah … it’s all one way traffic.

If there’s Altnet ducts between Openreach boxes, Openreach are strictly forbidden to run any of their lineplant through them.

All animals are created equal, though some are more equal than others.

We've got Lit Fibre around here putting whatever their version of a CBT is into chambers already occupied by Openreach and Hyperoptic, and I assume Netomia are going to do the same thing in the next year or so, which leads me to the question of how this space is allocated.

Is it first come first served for chamber space to the degree that it's worth rushing around and throwing kit into them before you're the one who has to pay for a new chamber to be built?