new fibre connection

I posted some time ago re a new pole "fibre/broadband pole with attachments" being put in my little lane in rural norfolk. replies stated that they thought it was quite likely the start of FTTP so my next question is: if I put a duct under the garden from pole(on my land) to my house will OR use it or will they fly the fibre to the house and if they will use a duct where do I get hold of same that OR will be happy to use. I am happy to put the duct in but if it wont get used seems a waste of effort

If the existing phone line is overhead to the home they would do the same. If you put ducting in and it was done with agreement from Openreach and met their specification after inspection then they might use that - i.e. a few hoops to jump through to get ducting used and adopted

The current phone connection is underground using armoured cable hence i want to keep any new connection the same

I suggest for a start you Google for "Openreach ducting" then look for the Openreach Developers Guide. The phone numbers and email addresses at the start may be the most useful part!

In which case developers guide and take it from there

I looked up your previous forum submission on this and wasn't 100% convinced that what you were getting was FTTP (rather than FTTC). Furthermore, if it were FTTC, you might not be getting a fast broadband connection at all, since you stated in your previous query that you're situated some 1.5 miles from the nearest cabinet. Normally, that would preclude FTTC, as your speed would probably then be under 15M bps.

I think that perhaps you need to find out more about the eventual new line from Openreach. As we've seen so often, just because a pole or a cabinet has been newly installed somewhere, it doesn't follow that a broadband service from that will be shortly available.

My view - and this comes from someone with a past professional engineering background in copper and optical fibre technologies - is that the line supplier - in this case, Openreach - will want, wherever possible, to put fibre into the ground, rather than aerially on poles. There are some good technical reasons for this. There are, of course, cost implications, either way, as well. But clearly if they're forced to distribute the optical signal to your locality entirely via poles, then your provision of a duct for the last few metres isn't going to make much difference in terms of its protection or the line performance; it might as well remain aerial, right up to it entering your house. And because you're 1.5 miles from the cabinet, this will apply also to any FTTC copper line for the copper leg. Incidentally, it's my understanding that Openreach wouldn't recommend you using an FTTC connection (as opposed to FTTP or remaining on ADSL/ADSL2) in the first place if you were that far from the cabinet. You may, however, have some other overriding wish to put the last few metres into an underground duct, such as a large tree or some other obstruction that would otherwise baulk an aerial route into your house.

Openreach may now have rules laid down about this but certainly some years ago, in the context of an ADSL line, I myself managed to persuade OR to replace a rather ropey and multi-repaired stretch of underground copper line in my own immediate neighbourhood and were happy for me to provide, across my front garden, an underground plastic duct, with suitable end cappings and allowance for water drainage, to get the new cable (the ropey existing one had been directly buried) from the pavement to my house. The said duct was around 4 metres in length and designed for burying. Frankly, there was little alternative, other than for OR to directly bury the cable in the ground, which would have made it vulnerable to being inadvertently dug up by me, my neighbour, or my successor during some gardening exploit. Openreach don't really like themselves messing about with people's properties/gardens, so were pleased to find a suitable duct in place, to get the cable finally from the pavement to the front wall of the house.

FTTP infill at those sort of distances is something that is happening more, particularly in phase II of projects, so while not happening in millions its very possible

Threelegs

You need to check using your telephone number. You will then be able to see whether you are actually down for FTTP or a degraded by distance FTTC.

If you need help explaining the results post them here with the telephone number removed and someone will help.

You can also use the openreach checker which will give more information about the state of the FTTP provision if that is what you are getting

Edited by kitcat (Wed 18-Jan-17 12:47:42)

In reply to a post by meditator:

Furthermore, if it were FTTC, you might not be getting a fast broadband connection at all, since you stated in your previous query that you're situated some 1.5 miles from the nearest cabinet. Normally, that would preclude FTTC, as your speed would probably then be under 15M bps.

That isn't correct. There is nothing to stop people ordering FTTC with estimates well below 15Mbps. In fact some ISPs will supply at 2Mbps with no quibbles.

You may be thinking of BT (Retail) Infinity, which is not available if the estimate is below 15Mbps. That is simply a marketing decision, to keep up the average speed of Infinity connections. BT Retail in such cases offers "Unlimited Faster Broadband", which is still FTTC. For estimates between 2Mbps and 15Mbps.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

... There is nothing to stop people ordering FTTC with estimates well below 15Mbps. In fact some ISPs will supply at 2Mbps with no quibbles.

And in some case at below 2 Mbps too. I know of one which is around 1.2 to 1.6 Mbps on FTTC initially BT now A&A. ADSL could only provide sub-1 Mbps