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Is this a g.fast Pod?

SpongePower — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 02:55:19 GMT

I have noticed what look like new g.fast pods appear next to some of the cabinets in town and I was quite excited at the idea of faster internet since my house is quite heave on usage ( luckily we get 80/20 ). Recently the cabinet that servers me got two addictions a pod on the copper cabinet but it doesn't look like any of the other g.fast ones and a small attachment was made to the right side of the fibre cabinet. Shortly after that I had a line disconnect over night which lasted half an hour and when it came back my line speed was the same but my line stats had changed quite a bit. So I'm curious if all this has some thing to do with g.fast? hopefully 🙂

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

aam — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 05:37:05 GMT

Both are just for increasing capacity. The pod on the main cabinet to increase the copper capacity and the extension on the FTTC cabinet to add more ports.

Also Openreach have suspended the deployment of G.fast for the foreseeable future with preference for FTTP instead.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

SpongePower — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 13:21:42 GMT

Ah I thought it was too good to be true. Is this a g.fast pod? I went to the other side of town and noticed more additions to the other cabinets through town and it looks a lot more like a g.fast pod from pictures I've seen of them. Is this a g.fast pod?

Apologies for the AWFUL photo I had to cut and zoom the picture in so much to be able to upload it to the forum.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

aam — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 13:43:28 GMT

Yep, that’s a G.Fast pod.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

Starwire — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 16:17:24 GMT

Not necessarily, Openreach have been using them to increase Capacity for VDSL as it’s quicker and cheaper than installing new Standalone RDSLAMS.

Theres loads round my way that are for VDSL and not G.Fast.

As someone mentioned Openreach have suspended the G.Fast Roll Out in favour of FTTP until April 2021 and to be honest I can’t even see them continuing with G.Fast after that, or at least not on the scale of 10 Million they’d originally set out to so.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

SpongePower — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 17:38:54 GMT

That's unfortunate I was really hoping for better broadband coming to my area. I'm close to the cabinet and get 80/20 but my house is very heavy usage so an upgrade in speed would have been welcome 🙂

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

j0hn83 — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 17:35:02 GMT

As already mentioned the G.Fast rollout is stopped for the foreseeable future.

Any of the vented pods like in your blurry image are likely to be VDSL Sidepods.

The codelook website can tell you if it's a VDSL Sidepod but it isn't always up to date.

OpenReach have also started deploying Subtended Head-Ends (mini_OLTs) in identical pods.

I've attached an image of a Nokia S.H.E

So that's now G.Fast, VDSL and FTTP equipment all in identical pods.

The vast majority being deployed at the moment are VDSL Sidepods.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

pippincp — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 18:20:40 GMT

How do you explain the fact that FTTP is not supplied from a cabinet but from an aggregation node? There is also the fact that no more G.Fast pods are being fitted until end April next year earliest.

BTW that looks like a G.Fast pod. I'm sure @Starwire will confirm or deny.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

j0hn83 — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 18:20:28 GMT

Subtended Head-Ends (mini OLTs) are a relatively new deployment method OpenReach are using particularly in rural areas.

They use a spare fibre from the FTTC cabinet to provide FTTP from a mini OLT within the pod.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/09/a-look-at-openreachs-compact-fttp-broadband-ont-and-mini-olt.html

That article is actually a year old.

Here's an article from a month ago describing the same thing.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/08/openreach-updates-on-rural-fttp-pilot-progress-in-okehampton.html

Using a Subtended Head-End can increase the range they can deploy FTTP.

They can support up to 1024 FTTP lines I believe.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

pippincp — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 18:27:14 GMT

OK, I'll grant you the OLT but that would not entail a pod to be added to the cabinet just for that. I'm certain @Starwire will either correct me or otherwise.

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

j0hn83 — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 18:37:49 GMT

It would need a pod.

It requires space and power. It isn't passive equipment.

The power is borrowed from the FTTC cabinet the same way G.Fast pods are.

Here's the article I sourced the image above from.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8807-okehampton-exchange-now-has-over-3-000-premises-with-openreach-fttp-option

"Oneof the changes in the roll-out has been the addition of active hardware for FTTP deeper into the network, i.e. until recently the Openreach GPON FTTP roll-out was passive between the headend exchange and customer premises. Deploying active hardware e.g. mini OLT units can help extend the reach of the GPON network and allow for more PON's (each serves 32 properties) while using a single fibre. The use of a single previously available fibre to serve something like 500 premises means there is scope to borrow power from an existing VDSL2 cabinet and one of its spare fibres, thus avoiding the need for new spine cabling in some cases."

Re: Is this a g.fast Pod?

Starwire — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 20:24:08 GMT

He knows a lot more about it than me. I’ve vaguely heard of it but as it’s not in the area I work in, that I know of and I don’t do Network Build. It’s probably been briefed out in the mountains of literature stuffed down our throats but I hardly read it.

I seldom go into RDSLAMS and the PCP Side Pods and if I do it’s only into the part with the Tie Pairs/Splitters to fix a DIS or change a faulty Splitter.