Gigaclear - run your own conduit

Hey everyone.

I am close to pressing the button on getting Gigaclear FTTP. We have a 25m run through our garden between the POT in the road and the property wall. I know if I ask Gigaclear to just do the installation they'll house the fibre in a thin black conduit, dug into the garden. This is how the installations for my immediate neighbours have been done.

The Mrs is very keen that we do not let just anyone loose in the garden with a spade. As such I am considering laying a larger conduit (straight line, etc) for them, to make the installation on the day much easier. All they will then need to do is pull the fibre (inside their own little black conduit) through rather than dig it in.

I contacted Gigaclear to see if they had any spec I needed to meet, to be told that they require a 2" non flexible conduit laying. Despite me countering that 2" was ENORMOUS for a single run of fibre (and them agreeing) this is all it says on their spec sheets which the support people follow. So I was wondering if anyone had any PRACTICAL experience of this. I was thinking more along the lines of 25mm flexible conduit.

Thanks!

Yes, I have done similar via Aquiss, but no one was telling me how to do it.. Openreach had the property on their database, accessible here: https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com as having an underground feed for the PSTN. The PSTN went into the meter cabinet with barely enough space for the NTE and no power socket, plus I am likely keeping the PSTN till near its demise, so I wanted the ONT in a different location. The response to the situation from Martin at Aquiss was:

The property is currently underground fed, so they will look to use this (ie: cleaning a blocked duct or laying a new one). They won't revert to overhead fed unless they have no other option (and is possible). However, the only way forward in all cases is placing an order and then the process starts. Any problems will get picked up and addressed by Openreach.

In the event, I did much as you propose and dug my own trench of 20m, mainly because I didn't want a mini-excavator brought on to the job, bearing in mind the route crossed the drainage field and the feed for the waste water treatment plant, plus the neighbours electricity.

I laid 50mm twin wall eg https://www.plastics-express.co.uk/black-twinwall-du... and didn't backfill until after the fibre was run, which can be a problem if you don't know how the duct will lay, but I was confident. Typically this duct has a thin but strong plastic draw string. I got some polypropylene drawstring eg https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/DR11673.html] and pulled this through before attempting to pull the fibre.

The Openreach guy arrived I think hoping to string up an overhead and away, was a bit sticky about my proposed entry to the house - leaving some slack in the cavity. But ultimately he could see what I was trying to do and I got the job I wanted after I made a few adjustments. The main issue remaining was that the fibre capping that Openreach use didn't cope well with the lipping on the rendering above the lower reconstructed stone courses and the guy didn't have the elephant's foot to join to the ducting. I let this pass for the install and got my own elephant's foot like this https://www.millsltd.com/default/connector-bend-no-4... plus some other bits and tidied it up. This was Openreach, Gigaclear might differ in the hardware they use.

You are going to be digging a trench, so you could actually lay 150mm duct with no extra digging. Although it might seem excessive to you, 50mm is actually about the right size. It will lay in the trench straighter with much longer intervals between contact points than 25mm and at the ends, the bends will have larger radiuses. Whoever is telling you to use 2" non flexible, with due respect, has likely never pulled a cable into a duct or dug a trench. They are more likely working from the Openreach developers' spec which uses 54mm rigid. But bear in mind you are not providing a infrastructure duct, this will be a private duct. If you have doubts as to what will be accepted, put in the duct you want, but don't backfill it, so you at least don't have to re-dig if you don't get your way. Bear in mind for both yours and mine, Direct in Ground is a recognised install, I believe, so a duct will be indisputably no worse.

I laid mine at a depth of 500mm, which leaves it well below normal gardening depths. It's more work, but once you get the ground open, the extra is no more difficult to take out. A tip is to get a trenching shovel to clear out the spoil. A spade lays too flat and is unnecessary bending. An ordinary shovel is too wide for the width a spade will cut. A trenching shovel addresses these points.

I think that covers my experience and main learning points and I wish you similar success.

Edited by DFScale (Sat 09-Mar-24 21:05:38)

My Gigaclear connection was 8 years and was DIY.

I ran the cable from the pot to the router inside blue water pipe about a foot deep in the ground. The cable then goes up through the soffit to the attic inside 15mm copper pipe. The upper floor is tile hung so it is difficult to attach anything to it. It was not easy to buy any other colour of piping. The cable Gigaclear supplied cable had the same connectors on each end and I think is about 4.5mm diameter. These days the Gigaclear router is in bridge mode and I have an OPNsense router. Both boxes are in the attic.

One way of running a cable through a pipe is to suck a cotton wool bud attached to a thread with a vacuum cleaner. I happen to know that I could push coax TV cable through a straight piece to pipe no longer than about 20m.

I'd say run whatever you want, the guy who shows up to do the install isn't going to refuse to do it and get a shovel out themselves.

Try not to get anything that needs joining, a 40mm twin wall duct would be perfect as it is more crush resistant than the cheap flexible conduit and has a smooth inside wall.