Whats maximum distance "Outside Box" to internal ONT box?

I need to plan the route in my house for the FTTP installation due in a week or so in the UK. My ISP says wait for the Engineer to come, but that will be too late as I need to clear on the routing and so clear things out of the way.

Please could someone help me with categoric answers to the following:
- How far from the "Outside Box" can the ONT box be without any significant degradation of quality? (this is the most importance question...and what's the Outside Box called ) )
- As the connection from the Outside box to the ONT box is fibre
> What diameter 90 degree bend can it safely withstand?
> Is there any recommended conduit or other cable protection that I can easily and cheaply obtain in the UK?
- Please confirm that:
> cable from the ONT box to the Router is Cat5e
> the distance from the ONT box to the Router can be 10 metres without any significant degradation.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! ....to anyone that can give one or more confident answers to the above.
BB

1. The outside box is called the Customer Splice Point (CSP). Since the link between the CSP and the ONT is fibre, there is unlikely to be any degradation of signal due to distance. If it's a long way, the limiting factor might be amount of time it will take the Openreach engineer to run the fibre (see 3 below).

2. I dont know the minimum bend radius. My guess is that it would be something similar to Cat5e.

3. Mini-trunking or 20mm round conduit would do well. If you want to make life easy for everyone, put a drawstring in so the engineer can pull the fibre through (I did this and got brownie points from the Openreach engineer, and the ONT went exactly where I wanted it as a result). Round conduit is less likely to snag the fibre than minitrunking and you can buy curved joints for corners, mini-trunking is less obtrusive but has right-angled bends which might cause problems.

4. Cat5e will be fine from ONT to router. As long as the cable is good quality and not kinked, bent or otherwise abused, a 10 metre run will be absolutely fine.

All based on experience from a recent installation here - I'm not an installer.

As per stephen_b's reply, the distance from the CSP to the ONT is not important in terms of signal quality - the limiting factor will be the length of pre-terminated fibre that the engineer has available. From personal experience, I know that 10 metres is fine, and I have read here and elsewhere that up to 30m should usually be fine.

I belileve the bend diameter is usually expressed as equivalent to the circumference of a pound coin.

I ran a 9m length of 20mm flexible conduit (sourced from the local Screwfix) from my external wall to the internal cupboard where I wanted the ONT. I then used the "kitchen roll and hoover" method to pull a string through that. The installer was more than happy to use this to install the fibre.

Connection between the ONT and router will depend on the FTTP service you're ordering. If it's a 'standard' 1Gb/s or less, then Cat5E is in spec for up to 100m. If you're going for the newer 1.6Gb/s offerings, then your ONT will have a 2.5Gb/s port - Cat5E is probably still good for 30m or so, but I'm not 100% on the specs there.

In reply to a post by NewFTTPUserBB:

Please could someone help me with categoric answers to the following:
- How far from the "Outside Box" can the ONT box be without any significant degradation of quality? (this is the most importance question...and what's the Outside Box called ) )
- As the connection from the Outside box to the ONT box is fibre
> What diameter 90 degree bend can it safely withstand?
> Is there any recommended conduit or other cable protection that I can easily and cheaply obtain in the UK?
- Please confirm that:
> cable from the ONT box to the Router is Cat5e
> the distance from the ONT box to the Router can be 10 metres without any significant degradation.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! ....to anyone that can give one or more confident answers to the above.
BB

Others have answered the questions on the fibre, but in general it is best to arrange internal and external points such that there is only a minimum run of optical fibre within the house. Usually, it is better to run Cat5e than optical within the premises as it is more robust [although fibre is fairly robust] and repair is under your control.

Cat5e is fine within the house as fixed wiring up to 100m I believe, inclusive of a connection point and a patch lead to the router.

Thankyou so much Stephen B. That's invaluable advice!

Thankyou so much Potterer. That's excellent!

Thank you DF Scale for reviewing the feedback and adding the extra info.

Remember you need to be near a twin mains socket, 1 = ONT, 2 = Router (unless your router is further away).

As already quoted I would have the ONT on the inside wall of the outside box (CSP) and then run cat5e/6 from the ONT to your router that way any issues with internal cable can be fixed with a temporary cable quickly and you can route this cable which ever way you want (up to 305 metres away from ONT).

having a short fibre length from the CSP also means if there is a fault with the fibre. Openreach have a couple of metres spare in the CSP to repair any such problems quickly rather than have to replace over 10 metres of fibre which could take days to get an engineer with enough time.

Cat 6 can run 10 Gbit in your house so there is no need to have the fibre all the way to the router.

also making it right next to the CSP means you only need 1 extra plug for the ONT and leave the router plugged in to where it currently is linked to the ONT with a longer cat5e/6 cable

you can get 2.5 Gigabit over 100 Metres of cat5e cable
but even so as you say the OP could upgrade this easily in the future if the get more speed than this
without having to pay openreach to do it.