potterer

7 Fibre runs from a pole would be no problem even n if they are all in one 120 degree spread..

In reply to a post by kitcat:

It looks like a planning issue in that a planner has thought of the first stage of rollout but not ensured that the design can cope with a full rollout!

Witchunt may like to comment if he sees this thread.

Are all the Openreach planners based off-shore (India)?

Is there a local team that does any review / audit / checking or does it simply go out to build for expediency, before any issues like this are discovered?

Pheasant.

Not in a position to say on where the teams are based, but I believe some teams are based in this country. Whichunt may have more up to date info on location. Surveyors should have picked up the potential when they looked at the pole locations..

Until the CBTs are put up we do not know what has been planned and are making assumptions of worst case, ( one CBT on each pole) it may all be planned for 100% coverage with the CBTs going on each close and the Poles just for the fibre access. Both designs are possible from the info we have been given by the OP.

Thanks kitcat

Potterer

We are also in the middle of a rollout and the planning appears good for 100% take-up.

I have just had a look at the blocks of flats, each now has a CBT attached to the wall about 3m up with enough ports to cater for each flat. Most of the Pole fed houses have enough CBT capacity to cater for 100% of the existing drops.

I am keeping an eye on the exception which is an overloaded pole with 48 plus drops to houses and flats connected to it. (Some will be obsolete). Last week the old ceramic isolators were removed leaving a birds nest of wires. The flats have already been catered for as above allowing fr the future removal of three of the multi pair cables.

Talking to the group of OR workers and contactors gathered around the base they are going to try to place 3 CBTs if they can find room when up there. and are hoping that the number of workers is below 36! (The area has Virgin already) The OR engineers said the limit is meant to be 30 drops but there are so many they couldn't count from ground level! always losing count at somewhere over 40! . They were also wanting to connect 2 fibre cables in addition for the two CBTs they had just installed on a subsidiary pole and were worried about adding extra strain on the pole.

I am waiting with interest to see what the final solution they come up with is.

Have to wait for another day, they got the fibre cables up but there is not enough room for the CBTs so they are going back to the planners..

Edited by kitcat (Tue 04-Oct-22 13:35:15)

Thanks kitcat, that's very interesting. Roadworks for the poles are scheduled for 21-24 October (which I've just realised is over a weekend) so I'll update this thread after that.

I don't know if that first piece of work will literally just be installing poles (there are no poles at the moment), or if they will run fibre to poles at the same time. I will try and have a chat with the OR workers and see if they have any further info on deployment plans.

potteerer

Most likely just the poles, it will be a different team to run the fibre. Quite likely a team to put duct to the poles first, then the CBTs will be fitted with fibre tails, and at some point fibre put in the ducts back to an aggregation/splitter node. Then they will splice all the bits together.

So likely at least 4 teams with likely more than 5 visits. Plus quality checks.

Potterer

They have now been back and managed to fit two 12 port CBTs so must be hoping that 24 is enough with the offloads they have done for the flats. I think this will be OK as quite a few of the drops are multiple to the same single dwelling. (We have two as does the neighbour even though we now both only use one). Waiting for spicing to be done now.

So, an update. In short, we seem to have fallen at the first hurdle.

I arrived back from a trip to Ireland at the weekend, expecting to see the new poles - but nothing. After a few chance discussions with neighbours, it transpires that Openreach engineers were indeed in the lane on Friday, with a hole dug and ready to erect the first pole, when they were interrupted by a neighbour. She pointed out that the hole they had dug was in the garden belonging to her close (shared by 8 flats), and no-one had given permission for the pole to be erected. Apparently the OR team were very polite, said there had clearly been a mistake by the survey team in neglecting to establish ownership, filled in the hole and left.

I'm keen to get this moving again as quickly as possible. Assuming I can persuade the neighbours that the pole is "a good thing" (tm), does anyone know how we go about contacting Openreach to get them back?

They will want a signed way-leave from the property owner (possibly also proof of title)- can you get that arranged?

Might be easier said than done.