fibre cable the same for different provider?

I'm thinking of switching from Plusnet fibre to YourFibre are they are in my area and seem to have pretty good deals.

The question is, will the actual fibre cable that goes from the small grey box on my outside wall, to the small Plusnet box (that then goes into the router) be the same cable as that which Youfibre would install?

I have recently renovated, and the Plusnet fibre cable is now behind skirting and actually routed through a small wall, so replacing that cable could be problematic to say the least!

YourFibre will install all their own cable and equipment from the street to the router, the Plusnet/Openreach cable and equipment will remain untouched

so are you saying that they can use the plusnet optical cable, so I don't have to try to hide their cables within the property??

In reply to a post by ukmgranger:

so are you saying that they can use the plusnet optical cable, so I don't have to try to hide their cables within the property??

You need to read my post again fella as I said the total opposite.

YourFibre and the Openreach network (used by Plusnet) are completely separate. You will have two of everything once YourFibre install their service. None of the Openreach fibre cabling can be reused by YourFibre.

Edited by PCJM40 (Mon 01-Sep-25 15:26:29)

So they even have a different type/spec of fibre optic cable that runs from their external terminal box to the internal ONT? Surely it's the same tech??

In reply to a post by ukmgranger:

So they even have a different type/spec of fibre optic cable that runs from their external terminal box to the internal ONT? Surely it's the same tech??

You're missing the point as its not about tech, YourFibre WILL install their own fibre cabling, ONT and router all the way from the street to where you want the router located. You may have done a good job of hiding the fibre cabling installed by Openreach but YourFibre will not use it as its owned by Openreach. You're not the first person to switch from an Openreach ISP to a Altnet and find this out.

Hmmm. May have to rethink this and find a decent openreach based provider. Just can't go through the pain of hiding cables again. As mentioned newly renovated (but very old) property so really need to use the fibre cable that is currently installed behind skirting / through walls.

@PCJM40
Thanks for taking the time to clarify all this though - extremely helpful!!

If its a switch of Openreach ISP then everything you have apart from the router will be reused.

Probably doesn’t need stating now , but it’s not a compatibility issue it’s an ownership issue , competing networks cannot simply use each other’s assets (well not ones like this anyway ) even if the customer would like it to save ‘clutter’ on the house walls .

Edited by Iniltous (Mon 01-Sep-25 19:36:23)