FTTP question- can one cable supply more than one property?

I live on a terrace of 4 houses set back on a shared driveway and last year our road had conduits installed for FTTP. One contractor I spoke to said the plan was to run a conduit up from the street then across the driveway in front of the houses, then take a separate cable to each property from here.

I don’t know anything about laying fibre cables but it looked like a lot of digging and separate cables being laid. Does each property need it’s own cable from the street ?

Current we have all the phone lines surface mounted on the front of the property and I was wondering if that also could be done with FTTP and indeed if one cable could be used ?

The works are currently on hold as one of the neighbours complained about them digging across his section 🙄 I’ve tried contacting OpenReach to discuss their plan and also get the works completed without success. We’d really like to have the service installed, so any advice on who to contact would also be great to hear.

In reply to a post by simo_petar:

I live on a terrace of 4 houses set back on a shared driveway and last year our road had conduits installed for FTTP. One contractor I spoke to said the plan was to run a conduit up from the street then across the driveway in front of the houses, then take a separate cable to each property from here.

I don’t know anything about laying fibre cables but it looked like a lot of digging and separate cables being laid. Does each property need it’s own cable from the street ?

Current we have all the phone lines surface mounted on the front of the property and I was wondering if that also could be done with FTTP and indeed if one cable could be used ?

The works are currently on hold as one of the neighbours complained about them digging across his section 🙄 I’ve tried contacting OpenReach to discuss their plan and also get the works completed without success. We’d really like to have the service installed, so any advice on who to contact would also be great to hear.

So are these four houses are on private land ?

In reply to a post by simo_petar:

I don’t know anything about laying fibre cables but it looked like a lot of digging and separate cables being laid. Does each property need it’s own cable from the street ?

Current we have all the phone lines surface mounted on the front of the property and I was wondering if that also could be done with FTTP and indeed if one cable could be used ?

It depends on the design they have chosen.

It is technically possible for them to mount a four-port CBT on the wall. This will have one cable (containing 4 fibre strands) going back to the upstream splitter node, and then there will be separate cables from the CBT to each property, installed when each one orders service. This is a common arrangement for large MDUs.

However, with an MDU, there is shared ownership of the building fabric. In the case of a terrace of four individual houses, with four separate freeholds, it may not be administratively feasible to mount shared infrastructure on an individual property.

Therefore, they may choose to put the CBT inside an underground chamber, or on a pole. It's still cabled up the same way - there will be a separate cable from each property to the CBT, and a single cable back to the splitter - and those separate cables may be pulled through a shared duct.

How do the current copper cables get to the front of each of the 4 properties? have you surface traced yours? Have you spoken to your neighbour who complained and explained the benefits?

That’s all very useful info that may be explain their original design planning.

We’re all leaseholders so I guess the shared driveway is property of the freeholder. I’ve since spoken to the neighbour who objected and managed to convince him of the benefits.

I’ve traced the current wiring back as best as possible. It’s covered in layers of paint and some of the old wires have been cut, but seems to stem from 2 junction boxes located at each end of the terrace.

So in some ways it looks like the idea of a 4 port CBT isn’t that different from the current copper set up, as the cables could individually run along the fronts of the properties ? Perhaps we’d only all have to agree on a chosen site for it’s installation and dig a single channel up from the road.

The alternative plan would involve digging across and also along everyones driveways to install cables to the houses, hence my original concerns.

The problem I’ve still got is how to raise this with Openreach and their design planners and see what they think.

Thanks again for your help, it’s much appreciated

contact openreach via x otherwise known as twitter and see if they can direct to the right bod

In reply to a post by simo_petar:

Perhaps we’d only all have to agree on a chosen site for it’s installation and dig a single channel up from the road.

this might be a good idea.. If the leaseholder can conset or even getting a conduit put in for the run then soo much the better