This topic

Full Fibre Installation

davews — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 10:24:55 GMT

Openreach have just installed full fibre in our road and I have ordered Full Fibre 100 (free upgrade on my current FTTC).

An Openreach chap came the other day to mark up where the ducts will go. I was under the impression that they will tee off the new big duct they laid passing my house and just lay a new duct in my garden under the hedge. But he claims they have to fit a new duct along the pavement to the pavement box outside next door's house. Seems a lot of work... When I pointed out the newly tarmacked pavement outside the house he said 'That's City Fibre'. Well that is indeed there as well, but he was adamant there were no Openreach ducts there.

My landline is currently fed from a box next door, and the feed to that to the pavement box was replaced a year ago after a fault. I assumed they had fitted a duct there but he claimed it just ran in the ground.

Not really my problem but if they have to dig up large bits of pavement every time somebody orders the new system it will take ages..

(and I do have a City Fibre Toby box outside my house, no use to Openreach of course...)

Re: Full Fibre Installation

iniltous — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 11:21:59 GMT

What does your survey note say on this checker ( use your address if your phone is on DV )

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

you are looking for something similar to

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues. ( this is the return for a fully ducted property )

I suspect that you address will be something like ‘partial DIG’ ( the default method of copper service in the 60’s through to the early 90’s ) ,

it once was the case that in areas where the existing Openreach cables were direct in the ground ( DIG ) they would built a new ducted network to the curtilage of each address ( apparently this is what City Fibre has done in your area ) but with the way that Ofcom and PIA work , an alternative network provider like City Fibre could use this new infrastructure if OR built it , they could even use it before Openreach ( if the customer ordered CF for example ) , the City Fibre infrastructure cannot be used in the same way by Openreach , so it seems OR now only build the duct to the property as an when an order is made even though it potentially means many visits to the same ‘street’ excavating each time .

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:25:26 GMT

"Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG partial Direct In Ground."

Re: Full Fibre Installation

iniltous — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 14:46:17 GMT

As suspected , partial DIG , so although there are usable joint boxes in the footpath and ducts existing between them , there is currently no ducted path to each individual property or a toby box on the curtilage , and given the relatively recent policy change ( presumably so as to not give competitor company’s an even bigger leg up by providing ducts to curtilage of every property in the street before any orders for service have been received ) and as said once this duct exists there is nothing stopping competitors putting their cables in these new ducts , City Fibre however can build to each property safe in the knowledge that only CF will be able to use this infrastructure , so not danger of them ‘helping out’ their competitors .

As you suggest , if an individual property orders FTTP in this scenario, depending on how far away the jointbox containing the appropriate CBT is from the property, then a significant amount of duct work could be needed , but the OR policy makers must think it’s cost effective to do it this way , presumably one of the reasons for the change of policy was the expense of the old system , for example say ducting 20 addresses in a street and maybe getting three or four customers on FTTP , so 16 addresses that could get FTTP from OR based ISP , but chose not to , using competitors like VM or happy with what the already have ) and making life even easier for direct competitors ( no longer having any real ‘civils’ expense ) they come along and obviously can be cheaper, after all they haven’t had any expense of the civils work , and only have to pay a peppercorn ‘rent’ for putting their kit in the OR infrastructure.

If Ofcom had made PIA ( physical access infrastructure ) reciprocal, so OR could use City Fibre or Virgin Media or anyone else’s boxes and ducts etc in the same way these companies can use OR , there wouldn’t be the need to do this constant digging of footpaths , but it’s not a reciprocal arrangement.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

36ULW — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 15:15:04 GMT

Openreach did start to put Toby Boxes in like CityFibre has during their FTTP Build but ended up scrapping the idea due to cost.

Openreach FTTP has a 30% Sale Take Up within the first 12 months of it being built/commissioned.

The cost per metre to dig and lay duct is something like £115 give or take.

What they’ll do now is when a customer orders FTTP they’ll simply Duct to their house and can then continue to extend and or T into it as and when others order it.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 15:38:55 GMT

Thanks. Presumably the main duct carrying the system fibre between the two joint boxes outside here cannot be tee-d into. They laid a fairly large grey duct for this. Two houses down already has the new fibre, presumably if next door between us chooses they can grab it from either mine of his duct... Neighbour the other side seems totally uninterested anyway, they don't care what sort of broadband they have as long as it works.

What is the timing for switching over to Digital Voice, will that be done on the same day as the final install? I have already received the new hub 2, presumably this has been pre-configured to interface via the WAN ethernet port so there is no point in putting this in until then.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

36ULW — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 17:56:28 GMT

Yeah, they can use that Duct. The Civils Team just need to use a Duct 54/56 Swept Bend T.

Looks like this.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 10:16:30 GMT

Nobody answered my other question. I have received a text this morning suggesting I may be switched over to Digital Voice in advance of the full fibre installation. Will the new smart hub 2 connect automatically on my existing FTTC connection without changing the configuration, ie work out the broadband is coming in via the broadband socket rather than the WAN ethernet port? (currently using a Billion router).

>What is the timing for switching over to Digital Voice, will that be done on the same day as the final install? I have >already received the new hub 2, presumably this has been pre-configured to interface via the WAN ethernet port so >there is no point in putting this in until then.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

licquorice — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 10:23:24 GMT

Digital voice will work with either FTTP or FTTC, the hub knows whether the WAN is associated with the broadband socket or LAN port 4. No changes to the hub are necessary for DV to work.

Even if the hub is configured in FTTP mode (LAN port 4 configured as WAN), it can still be used on FTTC with an input on the DSL socket.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 11:19:46 GMT

Thanks, now installed and working on my FTTC. I can see the setting to configure the WAN port, set to on. It has just done a firmware update, which confused me as I was trying to get my smartphone to connect to the wireless at the time. So set up as and when they enable the digital voice.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 10:44:40 GMT

Just to update on progress, or lack of it.

I am still waiting for Openreach to dig up the pavement and install the external fibre to my house. They did have roadworks permission last week which expired yesterday. Apart from a roadworks looking truck coming down the road the other day when they sat in the cab a few minutes then drove off I have seen no action. The order tracking page now suggests Openreach will finish the external work today, guess it will move one day at a time... Digital Voice is shown there as being implemented today but I have had no emails or texts to tell me so we will wait and see.

It does seem the policy of not installing ducts to houses is going to cause huge delays to full fibre installations. Now a month since placed the order and not a lot to show for it.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 07:47:43 GMT

I am getting a bit concerned about the lack of progress. As stated above the Openreach chap came round three weeks ago, surveyed and marked the pavement with white paint for the duct. There was an item on our local roadworks site for work by my house last week, that ran out on Monday and nobody came to do any work. The tracking page on my order gets updated each day to say 'Openreach will complete the external work today' but they clearly don't as there is no permission for the roadworks on the roadworks site. It looks as if Openreach have conveniently forgotten about my order and need reminding. All the time I have a losing battle stopping the neighbours parking over the area on the pavement, they no longer believe this story I tell them about Openreach coming....

I am not sure ringing normal customer support (150) will achieve anything other than 'we are working on it'. Is there a quicker way to speed things up?

(at least I see that they have now received the hub I returned last week!)

Re: Full Fibre Installation

iniltous — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 09:15:08 GMT

If you are having to ask neighbours to not park on the footpath where the new duct is to be installed, are you sure that access has been available all the time , unless you keep a constant look out , it’s possible the civils dig team ( contractor or direct labour ) could have turned up , found access blocked by a car , and simply left , obviously if you are always home and would notice anyone parking in this location , it’s not going to be that .

As you suggest, calling regular BT customer service is probably not going to get any useful info , given the way BT has to interact with OR , and the likelihood that OR will give the job to a civils contractor that will schedule the work , and notice the council themselves, means that you contact BT , they contact OR who then contact the contractor, and if any information is provided, it has to comes back the same way .

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:12:40 GMT

You may be right about them driving away. I did see them come down the road one day, car parked on my kerb but next door where they had to dig was clear. They sat in their cab a few minutes then drove off. Not aware of them coming again but I can't be looking out of my window all the time. You would have thought with a car parked on the pavement outside the house they were to work on (including my garden) they would have rung the bell...

Presumably in due course Openreach will notice they haven't done the job and will get them out again. But in the meantime we sit and wait.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 15:48:32 GMT

Chaps just been round at last to lay the ducting - as suggested they did tee into the existing run with one of the adaptors depicted here. It seems they may well have previously called and couldn't do the work because of parked cars. somebody might have knocked on the door, maybe out at the time. Anyway, first stage now done, took them around an hour. Will wait the next chaps to feed the fibre from the street box, feel I am making progress at last.

Re: Full Fibre Installation

davews — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 15:18:28 GMT

Finally seven weeks after placing the order Full Fibre 500 was installed yesterday and seems. along with digital voice, to be working fine. Slight glitch as it coincided with a mobile fault on EE so I couldn't ring it from my mobile. Almost a last minute glitch, the rope jammed when he tried to pull the fibre through and there was talk about having to call out the pavement team again to sort it - after he had already cut through my landline which would have left me with nothing... Fortunately a few more tugs and it came free. Very impressed with his tool for splicing the two bits of fibre!

He wasn't too impressed by the work of the duct people, calling them cowboys. I didn't want to get into arguments...

148Mbs down, 28Mbs up, very happy.