FTTP Termination

Rural FTTP is due to be connected via strung poles to my house in six months time. Are there any regulations that say there must be an outside terminal box and that this has to be at ground level?

The reason I am asking is that my property has 50 cm solid stone walls, which have had an external 10cm polystyrene/plaster insulation finish installed. The polystyrene is not strong enough to take any mounting boxes or cable fasteners (even the top of a ladder needs its upper weight distributed so as not to crack the thin plaster finish).

Ideally the cable could enter the house at upstairs bedroom level under the eaves and then down the inside wall. Do you think this method of cable entry will be acceptable to the contractor?
Robert

There are no such regulations.
However it is up to the network operator how they deploy their network.

OpenReach's current preference is to have any external CSP fitted to the end users wall.
This must be at ground level as it is unsafe (and just stupid) to splice fibre up a ladder.

They are often flexible on how things are done, and such things as internal CSP's exist. That would require any loft space the engineer was entering to be fully fitted and adequately lit.

They may wish to come down to an external CSP, and then back up the wall to your chosen entry point.

They may just use no CSP like they did with my install. This is being done less and less from reports on these forums.

It depends on who installs, the current training/rollout method on your patch, and how strict they are enforcing the ground level CSP policy in your area.
You probably won't know for sure until you speak to someone on the ground nearer the time.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

However it is up to the network operator how they deploy their network.
They may just use no CSP like they did with my install. This is being done less and less from reports on these forums.
You probably won't know for sure until you speak to someone on the ground nearer the time.

Much the same experience here with an install less than 10 days ago. No external box at all. Just a very small hole drilled through (I told them where I would like it sited) with a box fitted inside the house on the end of the fibre coming in from the pole across the road.

Indeed it works very well such I start to wonder why does Openreach have all these bells and whistles for a fibre connection. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thank you John, it is reassuring that there are no particular regulations on how the fibre line will be fitted to the house. My bedrooms are directly under the roof so there is no loft and I hope the connection can therefore be made through there. I am sure that they will realise that cable fitted to the outside insulated wall will not hold in place.

In reply to a post by Robbob9:

I am sure that they will realise that cable fitted to the outside insulated wall will not hold in place.

It would very much stay in place.

I've anchored a few hundred drop wires to rockwool/polysyrene external insulation and never had an issue.

Looking out my window as I type this I'm staring at half a dozen houses with an aerial feed and external insulation that was installed around 2 years ago, no issues.

I expect you will have the install done as you please but the external insulation will be irrelevant to that outcome.

Noted, thank you. I wrongly presumed that the insulated wall would not be robust enough to take cable fasteners.

Robert