MDU FTTP via Ethernet?

My parents live in a block of 40 flats, relatively new - maybe 4 or 5 years old.

At the time of construction there was no FTTP anywhere near the area, and for whatever reason everyone ended up with standard copper pairs to their flats.

The developer did kind of think ahead, however, and there's at least one Ethernet socket in every room in the building (wet rooms excepted), all cabled down to a comms room (more like a large cupboard) with two mostly empty 19in racks. A switch used for the communal WiFi is pretty much the only thing in there currently. The comms room is also where the copper comes in on a thick multicore cable and gets split off to each flat almost immediately (behind plastered walls).

By now all individual premises in the town have FTTP available, and the pole that serves these flats is likewise adorned with the usual fibre decorations.

I could be wrong, but I feel that there's no chance of the building's owner wanting new cables over the external walls, and I think the physical arrangement of the building would make internal cabling impossibly ugly.

So I suspect the only way anyone in this block of flats will get high speed internet will be via some kind of gateway device in the comms cupboard, with flat owners then connecting a router to this via the Ethernet sockets.

I've done a search, maybe using the wrong terms, and the only reference to such an arrangement I've found was an off-hand mention in a comment on a YT video for an American MDU fibre installation.

Keeping in mind that not everybody uses BT for their phone service, I'm struggling to figure out whether there can be a commercial solution here. I can imagine an Openreach device that essentially emulates multiple ONTs on different VLANS, connected to a switch that is in then connected to a selected Ethernet socket in each flat. But that's as far as my imagination goes.

Does anyone know if such a solution exists? Or is there another option that might be used?

You would kind of hope that each flat had its own aggregation point, if only to the extent that all the cable for each room enter the flat at a single point. That would at least allow an ONT for each flat in the comms room, with a single ethernet to each flat. Better still if the ethernets can be pulled and rplaced with a fibre.

Is there a management company or resident's association for the building? To me it seems that a leased line or business broadband to the building which is then shared between participating residents may be possible. It wouldn't give an individual choice of ISP, but could potentially provide good value for money for everyone.

Hyperoptic's default way of installing into flats for ages was exactly like this - a switch in a equipment area and then a Cat5e up to each unit.

While you could put an ONT for each flat in this area and patch it up and it would work fine, Openreach's responsibility ends at the LAN port on the ONT, and ISPs all expect the end user to have sight of the ONT to be able to power cycle it and check the LED status.

It would be one to discuss with Openreach when the survey is being carried out.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Hyperoptic's default way of installing into flats for ages was exactly like this - a switch in a equipment area and then a Cat5e up to each unit.

I was thinking some AltNet’s might quote to provide over this infrastructure, but it would need to be a local AltNet as I would guess ,for the next 5 years at least , the big wholesale network operators (OR, nexfibre, cityfibre) won’t want to do too much custom work.

Your idea I think is in the right ballpark, but you have a bigger challenge in getting someone to connect up the building in the first place.

could do 10 to 12 four port onts which would remove some of the issues, use rfid tags on the cables so you can know which cable is going to which apartment. Beyond the ont, the network cabling would depend on the mdu layout.