In reply to a post by Bill100:

So I suspect the only thing holding back a re-use for the purposes of FTTP is a lack of desire and commercial reasons

One "commercial reason" might be the principal difference between leased lines and mass-market products.

Leased lines are bespoke.

Mass market cheapness comes from deploying the same thing over and over, and having that one type to maintain for the next few decades.

To fit in with the latter concept, then think the other way around: not whether your line could be used for FTTP for you alone, but what would BT deploy to bring FTTP to your area for many. Your individual fibre really needs to match the intention for surrounding premises.

Your line would need to fit in with the same kind of connectorised DP with connectorised cables too. Or the same kind of manifold and blown fibre tubing. Then the fibres routed in a shared cable back to a splitter node (which would likely not be colocated with the aggregation node). And then shared fibre cables back to the aggregation node (which likely isn't colocated with the leased line nodes).

To turn your existing fibre into something useful for future FTTP (to more than just yourself), it needs to do 3 different jobs, none of which it is suited for. And if it can't be used to support others, or at least marry up with the same BFT or connectorised hardware, then it will remain forever bespoke.

One bespoke fibre does not a GPON distribution network make.

To fit in with the latter concept, then think the other way around: not whether your line could be used for FTTP for you alone, but what would BT deploy to bring FTTP to your area for many. Your individual fibre really needs to match the intention for surrounding premises.

Good point - no objection to that.

Your line would need to fit in with the same kind of connectorised DP with connectorised cables too. Or the same kind of manifold and blown fibre tubing. Then the fibres routed in a shared cable back to a splitter node (which would likely not be colocated with the aggregation node). And then shared fibre cables back to the aggregation node (which likely isn't colocated with the leased line nodes).

So the issue is that my single fibre could not be plugged into the splitter node unless it came back in a shared bundle? That could be the case if the fibre type was completely different , e.g. diameter, single mode/multi mode etc. If not, and I suspect the same single mode fibre is used fairly widely within BT, then the required "FTTP" connector could be spliced on to it - which is probably what they do with shared cable fibres anyway.

Even if that is not the case, then there should be some process to do so, even if it would not be done on a widespread basis - as this is fairly simple compared to re-running physical fibre.

Beyond the splitter node to the aggregation point there would be nothing non-standard.

One bespoke fibre does not a GPON distribution network make.

Indeed but it could be accomodated. And I wonder if you missed the point in my last post that this fibre wasn't specifically installed for a leased line...?

Even if that is not the case, then there should be some process to do so, even if it would not be done on a widespread basis - as this is fairly simple compared to re-running physical fibre.

The question is how many suitable dormant fibres are there that could be reused. If it is a relatively small number then defining the processes to deal with it may not be worthwhile - running a new fibre would potentially give better future supportability.

Also, BT are not offering FTTP in most areas - until they come up with a model that does (or that offers FTTPoD in a more cost effective manner) then they are not actually selling anything to most people that could resuse the fibre.

Also, BT are not offering FTTP in most areas - until they come up with a model that does (or that offers FTTPoD in a more cost effective manner) then they are not actually selling anything to most people that could resuse the fibre.

Yes that's the point... they should come up a better model for delivering FTTP and FTTPoD.

... and then they should offer FTTP to all customers that can currently order FTTPoD but already have fibre! Perhaps with a reasonable fibre re-use charge.

Then I would be happy.

No national operator would ever mix and match fibre networks. It's a recipe for disaster doing this.

FTTP has a required standard in terms of the equipment and cabling used. This will have all gone through extensive testing and be fit for purpose. Once you start joining old/new networks on an ad-hoc basis, you encounter all kinds of potential problems.

Not quite the same situation, but BT were involved in re-purposing this unused fibre cable!

That's quite an undertaking and as they say:

"Where there's a will there's a way"