Thanks for that.

So there may be of the order of 1,000 TPON cabinets out there, with ready access to power, and access to the copper line plant. It seems they make a natural location to place an FTTC cabinet now, even if a bit small. The latter might be a negative point in viability, but no charge for a power supply probably offsets that. Plus those sites are probably well suited to g.fast later.

Why do you say 1,000? Believe it is more like 50 to 100

Some TPON areas now have native FTTP

In any ex-TPON areas that I can think of the TPON cabinets have been left there and FTTC cabinets have gone in as usual. The network was converted to all copper years ago anyway during the ADSL roll out in my area. All the fibre cabinets have fresh fibre to them, the FTTC cabinets are connected to the same exchange as the TPON was as its a large exchange. Seems a waste I agree.

Edited by deleted (Mon 07-Sep-15 11:35:47)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Why do you say 1,000? Believe it is more like 50 to 100

The report figured 30,000 lines, and the cabinets are reported to be capable of either 32 lines, or 128.

If all lines were on the 32-line cabs, that is 1,000. If they were all on 128-line cabs, that'd be 250.

I've seen something (that I now can't find) that gave a hint that the 32-line cab might be more popular, swaying the average higher. But no evidence beyond that.

Some TPON areas now have native FTTP

That'd affect things...

The literature I read made it sound like the 128 line cab came out later than the 32 line one. So it may be in areas that were built earlier on that its pretty much all 32 line. But certainly in my area all TPON cabs are 128 line models.

Also some TPON was totally overlaid as part of the ADSL roll-outs, which may explain the lower number of cabinets now

Andrew

Although OFCOM were quoting 30k line in 2006 these were workers, the capacity was far higher than that and the total was already declining by then.
In the patch I worked on we only used 32 capacity cabs, ( approx 24 houses to alow for 2nd lines). We must have installed 350-400 in total, more likely to be 1000-1200 nationally. I can think of one area alone where there were more than 50 They were prefect at the time for large new estates where a new exchange would be the alternative.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

They were prefect at the time for large new estates where a new exchange would be the alternative.

Isn't it ironic that they effectively presaged the design of the FTTC network we know today.

Installation of a cabinet-based ADSL would have been so much better way to make them broadband-capable, rather than putting copper in. I guess the ideas behind GEA and VULA weren't around at that time...

The "24 houses on a 32-capable cab" is what I'd have expected too, dimensioning-wise.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

In reply to a post by kitcat:

They were prefect at the time for large new estates where a new exchange would be the alternative.

Isn't it ironic that they effectively presaged the design of the FTTC network we know today.

Installation of a cabinet-based ADSL would have been so much better way to make them broadband-capable, rather than putting copper in. I guess the ideas behind GEA and VULA weren't around at that time...

The "24 houses on a 32-capable cab" is what I'd have expected too, dimensioning-wise.

Interestingly they did also have ADSL cabinets in parts of Scotland. If I'm not mistaken they were in TPON areas as a way of delivering broadband.