FTTP via Poles

Lit Fibre is taking orders in my street and connections are from poles which carry copper phone wires. Openreach also claim to be working towards making FTTP available in the next 2 years. Can 2 different suppliers use the same pole for fibre distribution? Its already looking very crowded at the top of the pole outtside my house!

Expect pole 'busyness". Its a known fact of life with PIA.

Yes.

Openreach can replace their copper overhead wires with "hybrid" cables (copper+fibre in a single cable) so as not to increase pole loading. But I don't think an altnet could do that without permission from OR.

Thanks for the info. I hadn't heard of hybrid cables before. Lit Fibre are running their fibre so close to the copper lines that you have to look hard to see them!

In reply to a post by candlerb:

But I don't think an altnet could do that without permission from OR.

Mr AltNet would just run their new fibre drop and not give a toss about existing copper. Some of these poles you see now are heaving.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Mr AltNet would just run their new fibre drop and not give a toss about existing copper. Some of these poles you see now are heaving.

Lot of complaints around new poles:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/9408-poles-sprin...

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by candlerb:

But I don't think an altnet could do that without permission from OR.

Mr AltNet would just run their new fibre drop and not give a toss about existing copper. Some of these poles you see now are heaving.

+1

I had a dual fibre/copper overhead cable fitted three years ago No thicker than the former copper only line. My understanding is that the dual cables are no longer fitted.

Totally understandable given that the property will have FTTP and (new copper) would be kind of pointless now with WLR/PSTN national stop sell a few months away.

Mr Altnet is not allowed to touch the copper drop wire under any circumstances so even if they wanted to remove it, they can't.

Except for the trial…

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/06/altnet...

😎

If an area isn’t copper stop sell , and an Alt Net takes down an Openreach copper dropwire under the proscribed scenario ( pole already at limit or overload) and the Alt Net prove to be rubbish, or go bust , or the householder moves out and the new occupant doesn’t want to use this Alt Net , can Openreach take down the Alt Net connection, and if the ‘new’ service could have been delivered by the copper dropwire the Alt Net removed, can the Alt Net be charged for the extra work OR have had to undertake?…probably not , just another example of the Alt Net being given preferential treatment

Edited by Iniltous (Sun 01-Jan-23 10:34:58)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Lot of complaints around new poles:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/9408-poles-sprin...

It is not the poles that is a problem here as we already have them, but if everyone connected to the pole outside my house have fibre, there is going to be about 20 old cables coming from it. There are three fibre connections from it at the moment from what I can see from here, and already it looks a mess.
if the copper cables are not needed, they should be removed and maybe Openreach can tighten up the cables a bit so they don't hang down so much

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

It is not the poles that is a problem here as we already have them, but if everyone connected to the pole outside my house have fibre, there is going to be about 20 old cables coming from it.

Surely the number of drops from the pole to homes will be the same as when everyone has copper? Maybe the downside of having an AltNet is they can't use the dual (shotgun) copper & fibre drop.

if the copper cables are not needed, they should be removed and maybe Openreach can tighten up the cables a bit so they don't hang down so much

As I suggested above, perhaps the fibre is your AltNet and the copper is Openreach? And removing the slack could cause the whole thing to come down in high winds.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Surely the number of drops from the pole to homes will be the same as when everyone has copper? Maybe the downside of having an AltNet is they can't use the dual (shotgun) copper & fibre drop.

Not really. AltNets don't use OpenReach so they will add new drops when a customer connects.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Surely the number of drops from the pole to homes will be the same as when everyone has copper? Maybe the downside of having an AltNet is they can't use the dual (shotgun) copper & fibre drop.

While i can only go by the pole by me, the one openreach fibre connection from there follows the copper line, so Openreach don't remove the copper line and then the two from Zzoomm also follows the copper cables to the relevant houses, so now we have three more cables than before.
It looked a mess before, it looks more of a mess now. It is a shame Zzoomm did not go underground like they have in other parts of the city

In reply to a post by jchamier:

As I suggested above, perhaps the fibre is your AltNet and the copper is Openreach? And removing the slack could cause the whole thing to come down in high winds.

As I said above, two fibres are Altnet, one is openreach.
Never used to have so much slack, and they seem to be getting lower. If you have too much slack, high winds will cause them to sway a lot and that is not going to do them any good, I realise they are fixed on the pole and the house with a bracket of some sort, but still. These are old houses and the connection is on the wood cladding or, in my next doors neighbour's place, plastic cladding, I presume they screwed though it into the walls, but you never know with companies these days.

It is going to be interesting when more decide to go fibre on this pole