This topic

Fiber to Copper - external wall

casa222 — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 19:40:36 GMT

Hi all, I was wondering if I ordered BT fiber broadband, would BT be willing to terminate /convert the fiber to existing copper on the external wall, which already runs directly into my flat? The reason being is that there are so many cables all over the building I'd rather not add another (my flat is not ground floor). I'm not bothered by any marginal loss in speed.

I've attached the photo showing the existing underground trunking which runs from an external cabinet directly on the road outside, however I believe that cable was for copper only to the 4 flats, as it was put there when the building was converted 8 years ago.

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

licquorice — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 19:49:34 GMT

That is not possible

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

Crimliar — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 21:48:57 GMT

Any device that converts incoming fibre to (in this case) ethernet will require power. Technically using POE (Power Over Ethernet) is possible, but it's not something BT or any other UK infrastructure provider is fitting - as far as I know.

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

casa222 — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 10:27:54 GMT

That's helpful, thank you. I'll stick with copper or try the dreaded Three 5g then

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

Crimliar — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 10:49:15 GMT

Before you give up entirely try to have a word with the neighbour who has that black weatherproof box connected to the exterior access point. If that is ethernet cable coming out of it, one of your neighbours may already have beaten you to getting FTTP.

I don't know of an infrastructure provider in the UK doing this, but it is the kind of enclosure that could be used. Cannot stress the advantage of being willing to talk to your neighbours about such thing - even if having set up most of their loft TV ariels the Bilsdale TV transmitter catches fires and you have to realign them all for free (niggle).

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

licquorice — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 10:55:55 GMT

It's not just a question of converting fibre to copper, FTTP delivered to the premises contains multiple circuits and requires to be connected to the ONT to filter out the correct circuit for the premises.

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

jac_95 — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 10:56:03 GMT

@Crimliar

The black box is an Openreach copper above ground drop wire junction enclosure so nothing to do with full fibre.

@casa222

Just to let you know that in some areas a copper stop sell is being put in place which will gradually increase to include more areas as copper based services start to get withdrawn

More info on retiring the copper network:

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/retiring-the-copper-network

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

pippincp — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 15:25:38 GMT

That outside wiring looks like a total abortion!

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

Crimliar — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 16:54:05 GMT

Yup, you've old cable from the conduit feeding into the external BT box. The conduit does not meet the bottom of the external box (that'll be swampy). Thick black cable from the external box to the weather poof enclosure at one end, with what looks like multi-core wire coming out at the other end. Three sets of wires also coming out from the external box, one identified with blue tape, and later theyre all taped together with earth-identifying tape. The only cable that looks 8+ years old is that coming from the conduit, everything else looks pretty new. And yes if you pixel peep at the weather proof enclosure it does look like it says "Openreach".

Yeah - I'd say that's messy and unusual!

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

casa222 — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 18:06:16 GMT

@Crimliar thanks. when I bought the place it was a mess and there were just the grey cables going off to the flats from the external box. Now this black junction box has been recently installed so wondered if it was something to do with fiber. Seems not but I left a message to the tenant asking why it's just been installed

Thanks all for your input, lastly, does anyone know if Openreach offer a service to tidy this mess up? (accepting it could be costly). I'd try myself but not worth the risk of causing an outage for the others.

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

Crimliar — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 20:33:50 GMT

It should never have been left in such a mess, and you really don't want to go interfering with anything, not on the customer side of the master socket or ONT! Sometimes the best solution is to act dumb!

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

pippincp — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 01:04:00 GMT

The OP could get his line tidied up but his only, at a cost. There is no ONT there to cause concern.

An FTTP install would be much tidier but would require a cable running up externally to his flat. Everythhg would be clipped up correctly though. Better than that mess now. Again applies to his connection only though.

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

casa222 — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 02:05:18 GMT

Thanks.

The other 3 flats have confirmed they are using Virgin or Three 5G, therefore I'll just propose we remove that mess 🙂

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

iniltous — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 06:59:10 GMT

Although strictly speaking that mess is Openreach ‘network’ as it’s between the BT66 ( the grey block on the wall ) and the master sockets in each of the 4 flats ( presumably there are 4 separate cables 1 for each flat ) it’s likely that they were supplied by the developer, and although 3 out of 4 of the flats don’t currently use Openreach based services over those cables , they may in the future, so to start chopping cables may cause future issues , the cable that has the overground repair joint enclosure was presumably provided because someone damaged a cable to one of the flats , hence the repair.

As far as the original question, you do realise that copper and fibre are separate networks, and that fibre networks don’t just replace sections of copper cables with fibre ones, there is much more to it that that.

If these addresses ever have the option of FTTP ‘full fibre’ , as opposed to FTTC ( fibre to the cab ) then those copper cables , the external cable to the BT 66 and the distribution cables to each flat will be redundant and new optical cabling supplied to each flat , as and when FTTP was was ordered

Re: Fiber to Copper - external wall

casa222 — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 13:10:22 GMT

Thanks for the info. We may aswell just wait until FTTP is available before removing the mess from the wall then, as we're inner London so it's likely in the next 2/3 years.