Do fibre ISPs all use the same kind of fibre?

I have 2 fibre optic ISPs available at my postcode. I went with first one and cancelled my contract with them as they were not reliable, but I noticed they use green fibre optic male/female connector as soon after it enters my building. After that connector, it goes to the ideal location at the back of my building.

The second ISP has gone in and placed the ONT at an awkward location. I also notice they have the same green connector.

I'm wondering if they're all compatible? As in, can I just swap the connector and ONT around?

Which ISPs are they? It sounds like 2 separate fibre networks. The ONT may be tied to the network.

I am also not sure what you think you would gain by swapping the ONT? It is the cable that connects to the ISP so if the cable goes somewhere that is a poor location then swapping the ONTs is not going to improve that.

Are the ONTs actually inside the premises?

Sorry I wasn't clear.

The two ISPs are community fibre and Hyperoptic.

Both have their own lines coming in from outside.

When they both go inside the building, they change thick fibre optic into a thinner fibre optic and they use green connector to change over.

After that, Hyperoptic goes to awkward location and community fibre goes to ideal location.

My question is, if i want to use hyperoptic in an ideal location, can I do the following:

Swap the green connector around so the hyperoptic outside fibre is connected to the "ideal location" fibre that goes to the ideal location in the building.

and then remove community fibre ONT and then replace it with Hyperoptic ONT.

Yes, it's single-mode fibre with APC connectors on the end (the green ones), so you can patch it internally if you want to.

If you have a problem and call Hyperoptic out they might not be too happy if the cause was your extension cable, but I don't think we have a big enough sample size to know if they care or what they do about it.

I'm interested in the switch from Community Fibre to Hyperoptic though - CF is quite a bit cheaper and offers higher speed tiers and I've not heard much of people picking Hyperoptic where both are available.

Edited by jpm (Fri 16-Feb-24 10:25:17)

Sorry to jump in and ask a different question - rtcw - can I ask about your experience with CF please?
I was considering moving to them based on generally good reviews, but your experience is obviously less good...?

Thanks

In reply to a post by rtcw:

I'm wondering if they're all compatible? As in, can I just swap the connector and ONT around?

You can add a fibre patch cable, but you will probably need a fibre cleaner too .... but you can't swap the ONTs around(not 100% true but in your case it is), since each ONT adds their own cipher into the larger cipher that is created to make your own encryption to the headend unit unique

In reply to a post by jpm:

Yes, it's single-mode fibre with APC connectors on the end (the green ones), so you can patch it internally if you want to.

If you have a problem and call Hyperoptic out they might not be too happy if the cause was your extension cable, but I don't think we have a big enough sample size to know if they care or what they do about it.

I'm interested in the switch from Community Fibre to Hyperoptic though - CF is quite a bit cheaper and offers higher speed tiers and I've not heard much of people picking Hyperoptic where both are available.

I’ll give it a go.

Talking about ny experience, the main reason why i switched was because of over subscription.

i live in an estate where Community Fibre and Hyperoptic is available. To most people, if both are available, they’ll go for Community Fibre as it’s much cheaper.

Walking through the estate with my phone WiFi on, I would say 90% of SSIDs have Community Fibre name and the remaining 10% are either custom SSID name or other ISPs. I haven’t seen Hyperoptic SSID yet. Of course, some of them will be Hyperoptic but I’m just saying it’s not common at all.

During peak times, my connection from CF is still fast but I face occasional slow downs. I’m aware both CF and Hyperoptic may have different capacity in their fibre into the estate but it’s clear that Hyperoptic handles better at peak times than CF.

I had an outrage once, CF didn’t deal with it too well. Hyperoptic had a delayed installation but they did communicate better and did give me compensation for it.

The latency from both is about the same but Hyperoptic has better peering.

These are minor issues, I wouldn’t have gone for Hyperoptic as CF is still very good, the only reason it’s worth leaving is that they offered to match the price. I’m also paying extra for static IP address which is well worth it because I do plan on hosting an application or two on my server.

If your only choice is CF, go with them.

If you have a choice of both, go with Hyperoptic only if you can get them to match the CF price otherwise go for CF instead.

The only biggest loss is that nice router CF has but I’ll be using an OpenWRT router anyways

Thx v much. Useful insight.

No direct knowledge of either network provider, but having internal optical cables with SC/APC connectors at a both ends , one where the external cable and internal cable meet and one at the ONT ( this is the only way you could do what you suggest, swapping plugs at the internal/external cable junction and relocating the ONT’s , ) would mean both providers use pre connected internal cables of various lengths , so potentially lots of excess cable coiled up somewhere , for example 30M cable run , using a 50M cable , 20m of cable coiled somewhere, or they use field fit connectors, which are prone to failure.

OR,City Fibre , Netomnia AFAIK , all splice the external and internal optical cables together ( not a push fit connector), Openreach call this place the CSP ( customer service point ) the only end with a SC/APC connection is at the ONT , that would stymie your plans unless you had a fusion splicer, as obviously in these cases the internal and external cables are effectively the same uninterruptible optical path , having said that if it’s a multi dwelling unit , the cabling may be different to that employed on single dwelling units.

Edited by Iniltous (Sat 17-Feb-24 08:51:50)

After a closer look, it turns out CF used a splicer to connect external and internal fibre.

But luckily enough Hyperoptic has left a large spool of fibre within one of the boxes on the wall and I also obtained two SC/APC connectors at both ends.

So I’ll be making the extension myself but I will need to consider ordering my own extension fibre since the Hyperoptic one has been cut down in some places and is rather thin. I want it to be thicker.

I also don’t like the fact there’s so much redundant fibre in that spool either.

just get a pre made one........

This.

You seriously cannot home-terminate SC/APC connectors onto single-mode fibre, without specialist equipment.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

This.

You seriously cannot home-terminate SC/APC connectors onto single-mode fibre, without specialist equipment.

Yup, and you need to learn how to use that equipment vs a premade one

The redundant fibre is in case the end gets damaged, by people mucking around with it or just something like knocking the ONT of the wall.