As suggested already there are various possibilities, it’s could be that the pole your address is served from , although probably a ‘DP’ pole ( you could look to see if it has any identification labels on it as a DP ) if it is a copper Distribution Point pole , normally it would be provided with a CBT intended to serve the same addresses as the copper DP , but at survey it may be changed so that the previous pole is used and your pole ( as stated ) in effect becomes a ‘carrier pole ‘ , or it could the fact the pole was leaning over , perhaps to the point of being a ‘D’ pole ( defective ) then that particular CBT cannot be provided until the pole is replaced, in that case you have to hope that the FTTP build team revisit once the pole has been changed and provide its CBT .

Only time that will tell , keep an eye on the availability checker , once your address shows FTTP as available , if it’s only the pole one back with a CBT , potentially 4 wires between the poles doesn’t exceed any Dropwires In Line Of Route ( DILOR) limit , it may be visually a worse solution, but should an Alt Net come along , the ‘visual’ impact isn’t taken into account they will simply put up their own overhead cables on the same poles , obviously if a CBT appears on the pole nearest to your address, that will be used for you and your neighbours, once availability is shown and service ordered.

Edited by Iniltous (Mon 01-Jan-24 09:31:36)

Very helpful. Thanks Iniltous.

The pole that serves my house was actually replaced on 8th December 2023, I.e. about three weeks ago. No CBT is currently on the new pole but as you say, numerous situations appear possible.

There currently appears to be just one cable connecting the pole with CBT to my pole, which I guess is the copper connection which has always been there. I checked Street View, where the imagery is a few months old, and shows the further away pole before any CBTs were fitted, still with the same single cable to our pole.

I don't know your topology of your road.

But count the number connections available - it will be 4, 6 (not a hundred percent sure on the 6), 8, 12 or 16. and count the properties around it, you said you have four houses there?

You may need to go to the end of the street to match cbts and properties. Note this will only be a guide for you.

Also you may be provisioned from the pole 40m away, they can do 300m from the cbt. So you may be worrying about nothing

Hi Taras. This was a great bit of research to do - thanks for the suggestion.

The lay of the land is as follows:
- there are three poles involved - think of them forming two sides of a square
- the main pole, with all the CBT kit on it, is at the bottom-right of the square - let's call that A
- the pole that serves my house is about 30m away and is at the top-right of the square - let's call that B
- another pole also appears to be served by A and is at the bottom-left of the square - let's call that C

Pole A has 2 x 12 connection CBTs and 1 x 4 connection CBT, so 28 connections in total. By my count, pole A serves 24 properties directly, and also pole B which has four properties on it, and pole C which has four properties on it, so 32 total.

Both pole B and pole C are connected to pole A by overhead cabling - I don't know if they are old copper connections or fibre connections. Either way, sounds like pole B or pole C will need a CBT to ensure all properties are served.

In reply to a post by Taras:

I don't know your topology of your road.

But count the number connections available - it will be 4, 6 (not a hundred percent sure on the 6), 8, 12 or 16. and count the properties around it, you said you have four houses there?

You may need to go to the end of the street to match cbts and properties. Note this will only be a guide for you.

Also you may be provisioned from the pole 40m away, they can do 300m from the cbt. So you may be worrying about nothing

Might have changed recently but I've only seen 3 sizes of Openreach CBT's. 4, 8 and 12 ports (no 6 or 16).

is there any more properties behind a and any more beyond b and c ?

Sometimes you think a cbt wills serve a property and it doens't either because it will be done by another cbt or its uneconomical to do so. Given your checker response, i think you will be ok and probably over thinking things right now. And theres nothing else you can do till its available or not

Yeah... I need to just let it lie! I'll keep checking the checker!

openreach will be the first to tell you and then waiting for your chosen isp to say yay


Good luck!

If you have any questions pre install ask, theres a few brilliant installers here that will guide you.