Something is happening in Brackley...

First thing this morning an Openreach engineer was wandering around my street lifting chamber covers and typing into a laptop. Came back from shopping later and now there's three OR vans with a large tripod near my cabinet. Looks like they might finally be putting fibre into the ground.

The large tripod may well be safety equipment for someone working down a manhole

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The large tripod may well be safety equipment for someone working down a manhole

Turns out it was to support a large cable drum and they were shoving a thick orange cable into the ground. There's no other activity that I've noticed elsewhere though and that's the first cab you get to if you drive from Banbury (effectively our head-end) into our town.

Maybe just upgrading the main feed in preparation? Time will tell. I seem to recall that their last programme implied before end of this year.

There's an Openreach van outside and they are stuffing thick yellow cable into the ground. Looks like a fighting chance of a third FTTP supplier by end of the year and this is one I can use without changing ISP.

That sounds more like Cobra rods to me.

Ah ha! This morning a van I've seen in various places around town has turned up. It says 'Fibre Optic Connections Ltd' on the side. There is what I assume is a manifold and a fair bit of black cable which they are pulling through the ducting.

Interestingly as noted before they are only doing it along one side of the road. Given this is a cul-de-sac I can see no reason why they'd only fibre up half the road so there must be some plan to get fibre across the road to the other half of the properties. Do they run some fibres up one side and down the other? Or just run a trench across at some point?

Edited by Andrue (Thu 13-Feb-25 12:29:38)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Do they run some fibres up one side and down the other? Or just run a trench across at some point?

Dunno about your installers, but here Swish fibre used the second option (trench across).

As regards Openreach network and housing built in the 1960’s to very early 1990’s , these properties generally have DIG armoured cable house lead in’s and often would have ‘infrastructure’ only on one side only of the street .
At certain points from the existing jointboxes ( on the side of the road that has infrastructure ) , ducted road crossings were provided but without a corresponding jointbox box opposite, the duct end not in a jointbox , simply underground in the verge alongside the road , basically the armoured cables for one side of the road originate from the side of the road with the infrastructure, through the road crossing duct and then are buried directly to each of the properties on that side of the road .

This means one side of that road is financially a much better proposition than the other side , where adding all new joint boxes and duct will cost much more per tenancy than the side with some existing infrastructure , that side obviously will need much less new construction….in these situations Openreach and Alt Nets using PIA often do the cheaper/easier side and not the expensive side of the street …so you can have a street where FTTP is available on one side but not the other

Edited by Iniltous (Fri 14-Feb-25 09:52:51)

The opening statement is a huge generalisation. Lots of different set ups were used.

Don’t see how you can accuse me of generalising, perhaps you missed my use of the qualifiers ‘generally’ and ‘often’ , it true lots of set ups were used , in the late 1970’s there was a change to underground radial distribution, but still based on armoured cables ….the OP stated the work they observed was limited to one side of the street , I gave a reason why that may have been the case , I’m certainly not saying I’m correct , just offering my point of view , if you have a different one , that fine you are entitled to your opinion, just the same as me

Edited by Iniltous (Fri 14-Feb-25 10:36:43)