FTTPoD Questions

Hey all,

You probably get a lot of this here so apologies is these are another repeat of those!
With the new FTTPoD pricing that's launching in 2018 which is a massive game changer for me as i'm moving to a new house in Feb in a semi rural location, although annoyingly Virgin have just moved into my current area just as i'm leaving... sods law and all that. I run a home business so this would be quite a decent investment if it proved cost effective, I have funds available to cover the build and install too if need be (within reason).

So my questions are:

1. Is the distance from the aggregation node on a straight line basis or is it down to the distance on the road?

2. Where would the aggregation node be, is the FTTC cab classed as one and would the distance be measured from there if so? Looking at it on streetview, it's a large Huawei cab 0.4 miles from my house, with three chambers below it. If the agg node is further down the line from the cab it's potentially game over.

3. Is the "Fixed Connection" charge a monthly charge or spread over the new minimum 12 months?

4. This may be irrelevant but potentially a contributing factor... I have 0.3 miles away from the potential new home a well known wireless broadband provider in the south east of england headquartered there (masts and all), so if I was to go for FTTPoD hypothetically assuming they have some fibre going on that main stretch of road from the agg node already, would BT be able to tap into that and finish it off to my property potentially cutting my install costs, or would it have to be a fresh build altogether?

Cheers for reading!

Edited by Nitro93 (Tue 05-Dec-17 11:39:46)

I'll try with some. One thing is the new pricing I don't think has been fully published yet so many of your questions are probably not able to be answered. General feel is that whilst monthly pricing may be better the overall cost of providing FTTPoD will be little different to now (ie install costs could be higher).

2) Could be anywhere - not usually at the cab.

4) No. Existing fibre to other places will make no difference - the fibre will go back to the agg node anyway. And it is probably that the WiFi company are using a different type of fibre provision anyway.

In reply to a post by Nitro93:

1. Is the distance from the aggregation node on a straight line basis or is it down to the distance on the road?

Its radial (straight line) distance.

In reply to a post by Nitro93:

3. Is the "Fixed Connection" charge a monthly charge or spread over the new minimum 12 months?

Its likely to be a one-off charge and will get added to the build costs.

As others have said don't get too excited wrt the new pricing structure. For single installs the overall cost of ownership is likely to be the same as present, which would mean the one-off build costs will be higher. But until people see actual numbers quoted, no-one can say for certain.

Cheers for the reply! Makes sense.

Ah I've also just realised that it looks like they're not going to charge by distance band anymore "charges by Band withdrawn" - do you reckon they're going to just start installing it at cost?

1. Forget the old formula, the new system is more based around an estimate of what is needed since distance while a big factor can hide many extra costs e.g. chambers are in middle of road so more expensive to work on.

2. Generally near one cabinet, but which one in an area is hard to say.

3. Fixed connection charge is a one off, then it is the normal GEA-FTTP monthly costs, so easier to add the connection charge to things like a mortgage or loan. Remember we only have guideline Openreach pricing, the BT Wholesale and other operators need to release their detail to get an idea.

4. It would only be useful if you looked at their postcode and checkers showed they had WBC-FTTP available, but you don't run a broadband provider off of a WBC connection but a dedicated leased line and tapping into them does not happen.

As things stand look at current cost over a three year period, and then subtract 3 years of standard WBC-FTTP rental from that, and the remainder is likely to be the upfront cost. If by connecting you others benefit, then the allowances made in the pricing may help you, but if a lone property suspect new pricing will be higher than old.

Cheers for the response - very helpful.

I did read that (although aware all of this isn't set in stone yet) they will make allowances/deductions for if the fibre passes other properties to enable to them to get GEA-FTTP too. So if that's true and baring that in mind, my property is on a road of about 20 other houses, and potentially if they need to bring it up the road we'd be looking at another 50 or so in cul-de-sacs just off the main road... if that makes sense, would those deductions only be made for the houses it directly passes or would those houses on streets off said main road also be included in the deductions?

Unless i've completely misunderstood it of course then let me know, I'm a total rookie when it comes to this stuff but a FTTP connection would be highly beneficial for me and worth the investment.

The exact counting of which and which reduce your price is one of the big unknowns, hopefully will have had chance to talk face to face and figure out how they plan so can answer the questions in February and onwards

Sounds good - will stay tuned for updates!

Sorry to rehash my old thread, but wanted to put out another install related question so if anyone can answer that'd be great!

I know that my new house is fed by a power networks pole, so has the electric cables and then telephone line running underneath it. So if I was to go ahead with FTTPoD i'm assuming they wouldn't be able to make use of this pole? Would they have to erect a new one for this kind of install? Or does this kind of install require it to be installed underground?

Cheers!

Nope, more than likely they will use the existing joint user poles.