This topic

Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 22:46:31 GMT

Getting BT Fibre in later this week.

When house was built a few years ago, the openreach engineers installed a socket near the door and also one in our 'comms' cupboard which is where the BT hub currently resides and where I want to leave the new hub that we have received.

I've just had a thought in regards to the cabling between the two sockets. What is the required cable type between the two sockets for this so to work?

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

ptrduffy — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 23:12:11 GMT

What are the existing sockets? And how does the existing cable run between them?

If you currently have an FTTC service, then it's likely the "socket near the door" is a copper terminating point, at which you probably plug in a phone, and from which runs a cable that termintes in an RJ11 (telephone) connector that plugs into the DSL connector on your hub in the comms room.

In that case the "socket near the door" becomes redundant in an FTTP service. It will be replaced by an "ONT" - the location of which can be agreed between you and the enginner doing the install. Between the ONT and the Hub runs an Ethernet cable, at least Cat5e or better to support up to 1 Gbps data rate.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

caravanj — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 06:16:55 GMT

@Dave_77

As @ptrduffy says, CAT 5e cable will be ok.

Our hub is in an understairs cupboard (comms cupboard sounds much better) where the builders installed the wiring for the master socket.

Openreach installed the ONT on the internal wall directly behind the new external CSP box & I ran a CAT 5e cable between the ONT & the hub.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:22:43 GMT

It is a 5C Master Socket at door and a Mk4 in the comms cupboard.

Will the ONT allow me to access the conduit chased into the wall in order to pull the network cable to the cupboard?

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:24:46 GMT

@ptrduffy - go I should be able to use the rj11 to pull the network cable?

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

imjolly — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:40:33 GMT

are you not also moving to digital voice when you upgrade to FTTP? if DV your existing sockets and wiring become redundant

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:50:32 GMT

Yes all moving. I think there will be an ONT at the doorway.
In the cupboard there should be nothing now - until I pull a cat5e cable from the ONT into there to connect up the hub.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

caravanj — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:02:12 GMT

@Dave_77

Our builders ran the phone cable from the outside through to the understairs by clipping it through the dry wall cavity so there was no conduit for me or Openreach to use.

I had to run it in white plastic trunking so I used D-Line which blends in very well & unless you were specifically looking for it you probably wouldn't notice it.

As regards phones, we have phone sockets in most of the rooms so, with agreement of the Openreach engineer, the master socket was left in situ & connected to the SH2 hub by a BT patch cable so all our telephony works exactly as it did before we had FTTP.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

ptrduffy — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:05:22 GMT

@Dave_77

go I should be able to use the rj11 to pull the network cable?

I think you mentioned elsewhere that there is conduit chased into the wall and running from where the existing master socket to the comms room - assuming the conduit is wide enough for the Cat 5e cable, and doesn't have any tight bends, I don't see why you couldn't use the existing copper cable to pull the ethernet cable through.

Also bear in mind that you will need a power socket for the ONT - is there one close to the existing master socket?

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:24:38 GMT

Double socket beside the master Socket. I think the conduit is just for the drop so will have to check the attic to see how it is routed.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

flycop2000 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:07:52 GMT

I run external ethernet cat 6 cable through small bore external ducting between my house and garage which had a few bends in it.

I found it quite hard trying to pull the cable and eventually stopped in fear of damaging the cable.

I then used silicone cable lube which made pulling the cables 100 times easier.

Cable was bought from Screwfix.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 22:45:47 GMT

I've got cat5e - it's the remainder of what the house was done with, so I'll use that.

Never heard of cable lube so will look at that.

What is the best way to splice the two cables so that the phone cable can be used to pull the cat5e?

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

caravanj — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 06:18:45 GMT

@Dave_77

When I doing industrial electrical installations we always used cable lube but it was the professional stuff.

You can get the Ideal Yellow lube at Screwfix for around £5.

We weren't pulling twin & earth or Ethernet cables, all the cabling was in individual cores in conduit but we'd turn the cables back on themselves to form a loop that we just wrapped with insulation tape then threaded a draw cord through the loop & turned that into a loop with insulation tape.

I never ever had a cable run where the draw cord ( or draw cable in your case) broke free.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 17:06:20 GMT

So they have come and installed an internal CSP.

How do I remove (without breaking) the hardware unit from the housing? I'm in process of running ethernet cable to comms cupboard and want to tidy up the drive cable to protect it.

Difficult to squeeze the 3 clips shown.

Re: Internal cabling for BT fibre

Dave_77 — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 18:23:28 GMT

Meant to say that is the ONT and not CSP. I can't see how to remove it without causing damage to the housing.