So how do Gigaclear prepare the termination of the cable in the ground (pot on customer premises), and how do they connect the supply to each property, to the main cable?

The fibre cable comes into the 'Toby box' ground box
Inside that is an IP64 rated enclosure box - so provided this is closed/sealed up properly it should be totally water resistant inside
The incoming fibre terminates inside that box in a push fit fibre connection.
It looked to me when I saw one like a single mode SC type connector - there are umpteen type.

As to the infrastructure side I'm really not sure. I was rather hoping, like you, that someone else would!
I ought to go round to somewhere where they are digging and try and find out.
I understand it this is not a GPON fibre system unlike BT's FTTP option, this is the gold standard of point to point fibre (same as B4RN) So your fibre runs all the way back from the house to Gigaclear's centrally located village cabinet.
Possibly groups of individual fibre cables from houses are fusion joined to a multi fibre core cable somewhere?

Morning ZOM22

Could you clarify about the "fusion joint"?

Does it mean that each subscriber's fibre connect to an allocated single fibre in a multi-fibre cable back to the exchange, just like a the copper pairs (almost);

or does it mean that all of the subscribers' fibres connect in to one common fibre back to the exchange?

Well I'm treading on thin ice here in that I'm at the very limit of my knowledge.......so here goes to the best of my ability etc on fusion joins, GPON and fibre

A fusion join/splice is where an optical fibre is joined.
It is done in a special machine and even then still requires a knowledgeable operator The ends have to be very clean and cut very flat. The aim is to reduce to a minimum any reflection or distorison at the interface - and is a mark of how good the join is - there may be standards or limits to be met in this respect for an approved join: I've no idea - I'm sure the machine tests the join for loss parameters when it's finished.
Think of it a bit like soldering two copper wires together.

I have been assured by Gigaclear at an open day in person that there is no PON or variations of it in their system. It is point to point with symmetrical operation whether that be 50up/50down or higher speeds if purchased, from the subscriber back to the cabinet.

GPON broadcasts out to multiple groups of residences from a passive unpowered fibre optical splitters situated in the field. This makes it cheaper to install (no power at the splitter) with the end users GPON rated CPE decoding which parts of the broadcast transmission is meant to be for it (it's all encrypted). It has some restrictions with uploads capabilities from the end user due to the nature of its operation.
I suppose the CPE will need to be more complex to do the unscrambling of the data stream.
GPON is just one variant there are others I believe.
I'm also told that a lot of FTTH installations worldwide are GPON.
I'm gather that GPON services cannot by definition be symmetrical - the upload is always lower than the download - but I don't know by how much.

It seems therefore that in Gigaclear's case the property's fibre connection is going individually as a single fibre direct back to the "exchange" which is the actively powered cabinet in the village - it has a 4 hour rated UPS in it.

I really don't know the physical method by which they aggregate all the properties individual fibres back to the village cabinet.
But no - as I understand it it is NOT the case that groups of subscriber fibres are connected to one single common fibre somewhere in the roadside verge and then go as one fibre handling all the group's connections back to the cabinet - which would be GPON.
With Gigaclear EACH house has its own plug to its own fibre at the cabinet - as you said it's like the copper pairs - almost.

What happens of course back from the cabinet to the internet backhaul I've no idea whatsoever. Surely then at this point all the villagers 400 or so connections are aggregated into a few fibres back from there and no doubt contended into sharing out the service between them all
I'd guess the contention and the speed limits restrictions for whichever package an individual subscriber has bought is handled at the village cabinet.
About the only other thing I know is that they are/were using Keymile's milegate racks in the cabinets.

Thanks!

In reply to a post by zom22:

I ought to go round to somewhere where they are digging and try and find out.

Which project?

Slight clarification.
The fibres are Silica, NOT Glass ( which is a mixture of silicates; ) Remembering a project in the 70's they are pretty well immune to most things except a nearby atomic explosion and certainly ideal for eliminating interference say in the confined space of a military aircraft. Perhaps that is why the ban on mobile phones in airliners is relaxed ?

I imagine much of the cost of the USB cable replacement is that it includes an optical Tx/Rx at each end to interface with USB ? I'd love to get hold of one but I suspect that most of the fibre goes into long simple links for BT etc, so the price will be high till they are produced in quantity for offices etc.

I suspect that the main hazard is the RF between the mobile phone and the "base" or "mast" within the aircraft; and that it probably remains that way.

If I remember correctly, mobile/cell phones automatically increase their radiated RF power within limits, to achieve contact (if possible), so further adding to the potential hazard.

However, rather like WiFi on buses, trains etc, I suspect that mobile phones are unlikely to be forced to their maximum permitted output, in the limited volume of an aircraft (A380?); and a few base stations scattered through the the planes

That leaves the aircraft-to-ground link, via satellite, as the other main consideration.

However, it may lead to improvements in tracking aircraft.

========================

Agreed about the cost of those USB Fibre Links is likely to be in the Optical/Electrical; converters at each end.

Marvellous how small they are.

I wonder if we will be seeing USB 4 (or higher) to cope with the speed potential of the fibre.

In reply to a post by JGO:

Slight clarification.
The fibres are Silica, NOT Glass ( which is a mixture of silicates; )

Actually most fibre used in FTTH is glass traditionally it was a fibre called OS1 which gave losses of 1.0dB/km maximum also called G652D, more recently a newer version came out called OS2 which has lower losses of 0.4dB/km Silica would not typically be pure enough to use on longer distance links back to exchanges for further long haul links.

Zom22 your knowledge is better than you think, the only things I would point out is that most fibre in the UK is either PON or GPON, not P2P certainly up to know. That is why the upload is generally a lot slower that the stated download speed for the links. P2P is becoming more widely adopted at the FTTH role outs increase, if there was not fibre before then many are opting for the P2P although it does cost more to deploy. If fibre is already in the ground then this would be harder to change from PON to P2P as it requires the costly capital works in order to lay more cables on typically developed land or roadways.

Groups such as B4RN and other smaller local enterprises are enjoying the freedom of being able to install their connections as P2P and benefit from the symmetrical U&D speeds, where are areas historically more developed such as towns will most likely always suffer from slower upload speed.

You mentioned another option to PON which uses Passive Splitters is the use of specific wave lengths for sharing fibre links with multiple users,
For example the typical wavelength used for FTTH is 1550nm, but you can use other wavelengths in the same fibre core without interference. Adding more frequencies has a common name of WDM Wavelength Division Multiplexing, and within this there are two options course or dense giving CWDM or DWDM. CDWM uses wavelengths that are more widely spread DWDM uses closer wavelengths. There are various considerations for which to use which I will not go into hear but searching on the above abbreviations will give you some very good information on how it all works and what you need to make it work.