Internal Fibre Cable - which type?

Hi,

I've had a root around trying to find the answer to my query, so apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.
I even contacted the technical / installations team at my FTTP provider, and they weren't able to give me a decent answer.

I'm helping my parents install FTTP at their house.
There's an approx. 30m distance between where the CSP needs to go, and where they want the ONT.
I'm sorting out this cable myself prior to the FTTP install, my intention is to leave a decent amount of spare cable coiled at either end, un-terminated, so that the installation engineer can do their thing.
I'm confident in my ability to run the cable without major degradation, taking care on tight bend radii etc.
And the idea with the extra spare coiled at either end being that the engineer can cut away the damage when he installs new termination ends to connect it all up.

My questions are;

What cable do I need to use, OS or OM? The info I've managed to pull together appears to suggest OS2 is probably the answer. And how many cores does it need to have? But the last thing I need is for the installation engineer to arrive on site and tell me he can't use the cable I've installed.

Secondly, so long as I've installed the right cable, and not damaged it in the process, am I right in thinking the engineer will be able to terminate the ends on site, so that he can connect everything up?

If you need any more info from me regards the install or ISP, please let me know.

Really appreciate your help guys & girls 👍

The engineer will arrive with a pre terminated cable that connects to the ONT and he/she will splice the other end of that cable in the CSP outside.
He will either run this cable right from your chosen ONT location to the CSP, with no connectors or extensions, or he will place it closer to the CSP, and once he's left you can do whatever you like.

I don't think the engineer will be willing to connect his fibre cable to any 3rd party fibre extension wiring you have. His terminated end of the cable will go in the ONT. He/She could get in bother for doing what you suggest.

Plugging shared optics in to the unknown can affect others on the PON.

Edited by j0hn83 (Thu 28-Mar-24 07:45:43)

thanks for the info

unfortunately, the engineer cannot be given access to the cable route from the CSP to the ONT
hence the need to run a cable myself

even if the engineer could be given access, there's no way you'll get a pre-terminated cable through the 30m run between CSP & ONT

if engineers are precluded from connecting to fibre installed by a 3rd party, then whats the solution here?

an ONT in close proximity to the CSP, and cat6 from there to the preferred location for the router / hub, is not an option either unfortunately

What network provider , Openreach , City Fibre , Netomnia etc ?
Can’t comment on the Alt Nets , but Openreach almost certainly won’t use a ‘bare’ cable you provide yourself as stated the cable needs to have a pre fitted SC/APC plug on it , leaving a bare cable coil at the ONT location will be of no use , you could possibly look for an Openreach Ezibend optical cable of the appropriate length on EBay or similar site , ( this assumes you have no problem with how the seller obtained Openreach property legally ) that may be used by OR installer as it in effect replicates the method used on ‘newsites’ , where the developer installs the Ezibend cables that Openreach supply , ( the developer is paid to install these cables for OR ) there is a pretty good chance that the cables ‘for sale’ on EBay found their way from a developer storeroom into the seller’s possession anyway …it’s single mode cable btw

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 28-Mar-24 08:28:08)

The only way you may be able to run the cable yourself is if its an original Openreach fibre cable with a pre-terminated SC/APC connector at the ONT end. If you do anything else the engineer on the day will do their best to run and put the ONT where your parents want it but that sounds unlikely from what you say. Its been done successfully before but it does come down to the engineer on the day.

In reply to a post by CableQ:

unfortunately, the engineer cannot be given access to the cable route from the CSP to the ONT hence the need to run a cable myself

even if the engineer could be given access, there's no way you'll get a pre-terminated cable through the 30m run between CSP & ONT

The usual recommendation is to put the ONT near to the CSP and run a Cat 6 ethernet cable to the router. I doubt that there are many constraints on the siting of the ONT which require it to be placed at the end of a cable route inaccessible to the Openreach technician. Your real constraint is likely to be on the position of your router. And if you can rum an optical cable between the 2 points, you could run an ethernet cable instead.

Obviously, if you cannot cope with a preterminated optical cable, then you would not be able to use an ethernet patch lead with plugs on the end. So you would need Cat 6 off the reel or a cut length and you would need to install sockets at both ends, which will make for a neater job.

The ethernet cable will be more robust against installation issues such as kinking and you can replace it yourself if it takes damage later. There is no performance benefit for running optical all the way from the CSP to where you are planning to place the ONT - and once everything is installed, there really is no customer interaction with the ONT whatsoever. It stays plugged in, your router deals with the ONT via login credentials and that is it. All your other interaction is with your router.

If you really are determined to do this optically [for no benefit whatsoever], you need to get hold of the ONT fibre cable, which comes in various lengths. This is preterminated at one end only, the other is cut for the splice in the CSP . You then run this from your ONT position to the CSP, ahead of the Openreach visit and hope that the technician will go with the flow, which is not assured. But I will stress that there is no benefit in doing your job in fibre rather than Cat 6 and a lot of downside in that any damage to the fibre beyond the CSP will require a chargeable Openreach callout, whereas you can deal with Cat 6 issues yourself.

IMO, the biggest objective of planning the domestic side of a fibre install is to minimize the fibre installed in the home

Edited by DFScale (Thu 28-Mar-24 08:52:25)

As others have said, you running the fibre is not an option - the installation engineer won't be able to use it. What you could do in advance is run some conduit with a draw string from where you think the CSP wil be sited to where you want the ONT.

The fibre used by Openreach (I have no experience of the AltNets) is preterminated at the ONT end, so the engineer will be able to use the draw string to pull the unterminated fibre end from the ONT out to where the CSP is liocated.

I did this to get my ONT in an internal cupboard and all worked well, although in my case the distence was just under 10 metres.

You could install something like this which an engineer on the day should be fine to use, just note that the white cable jacket cannot run along a wall where it would be exposed to weather, it's designed to rear entry into the CSP and is what would get installed in a new build.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266510717813

I would reconsider running something like a fibre cable in a way that cannot be easily replaced in future but it's your call really.

Can you explain the route further, so maybe we can offer a better solution. can you put a conduit in with a draw string - then the or bod can just pull it thru?

Also

I'd agree with the others with what they have said. Also some of the wording you have used tells me you have never played with fibre before. I've recently started working with fibre because i need in certain circumstances to have very high speeds between machines.

I've hit the lc om3 cable connectors on the transceiver modules at leat six times when i've had to plug and unplug them. that alone tells me one thing. Whilst sc connectors are larger the point i've just made still stands

For your purposes go with a 30m cat6a cable.

Edited by Taras (Thu 28-Mar-24 10:17:34)

In reply to a post by jpm:

You could install something like this which an engineer on the day should be fine to use, just note that the white cable jacket cannot run along a wall where it would be exposed to weather, it's designed to rear entry into the CSP and is what would get installed in a new build.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266510717813

I would reconsider running something like a fibre cable in a way that cannot be easily replaced in future but it's your call really.

That is a reel, which OP would have to terminate. This [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145407183320] would be more appropriate, because it has the ONT connector in place. But Cat 6 ethernet cable is the right way to do this, with the ONT as close as possible to the CSP.