This topic

ONT box positioning (again sorry!)

Lateralleap — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 13:20:03 GMT

Hi,

I can see there have been many questions on this topic so apologies in advance for asking anoher one!

We are about to book a FTTP installation but there are some potential complications:

I already have two broadband connections for redundancy and the FTTP installation is to upgrade one of them
I plan to use Zen as the FTTP reseller and OpenReach will be the fibre installer
I plan to use my existing (Unifi) third party router and connect it to the ONT box
My router is at the back of the house on the second floor but the fibre will be entering the property at the front of the house obviously at ground level
Positioning the ONT box inside the house on the ground floor would be both inconvenient and unsightly. It would also mean me running a CAT 6 cable from my rouer to the ONT box which would probably mean routing the cable outside the house, shielded CAT 6 cabling etc etc
My preference would be to position the ONT box inside the house on the second floor either at the front of the house or better still at the rear of the house near my router
I had a similar situation with VirginMedia and to avoid them terminating their cable somewhere silly on the ground floor, I pre-installed cable to their specification from the ground floor to near my router which they then connected to
So my question is, will OpenReach be willing to install the ONT box in a room on second floor at the front of the house and then run the optical cable down the front of the house to where their termination box is locatated?
If not, does anyone have any experience of pre-installing an optical cable for them to use?

Thanks

Re: ONT box positioning (again sorry!)

gg30340 — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 13:29:59 GMT

This is a BT Customer to Customer forum. It has nothing to do with Openreach which is a separate company.

In general most Openreach installers will try to accommodate the customer when it is practical to do so.

Nobody can say what the installer on the day will be willing to do.

You are best to discuss what you want with the installer and hopefully they will be able to achieve what you want or at the least be able to tell you why they can not do as you ask.

As far as I am aware Openreach do not use customer pre installed Fibre as they are unable to guarantee that it is installed correctly or that it works.

There are others on the forum who may be in a better position to clarify that.

Any further questions may best be directed to Zen.

Re: ONT box positioning (again sorry!)

Lateralleap — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:00:28 GMT

OK thanks

The broadband service I am upgrading is BT and I am forced to use Zen rather than BT for the FTTP service because BT do not off static IPs...

Re: ONT box positioning (again sorry!)

imjolly — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:12:32 GMT

@Lateralleap

you are not using the BT service you are using the openreach network with your ISP Zen. this has nothing to do with BT Retail who are a service provider just like ZEN

as previously advised you need to take your ONT problem up with your ISP ZEN