FTTP cable entry into house

[JetLag]

BT Openreach were in our area a month ago and for a week the local community was clogged with Openreach vans with engineers installing FTTP.  All has gone quiet for the past three weeks, I wonder who upset them!

Anyway, I am excited about the prospect of having full fibre - sometime soon!

Not one for having unwelcome surprises I am investigating how the fibre installation will come into my house.

As you can see from the photograph below you can see that I am fortunate enough to have BT trunking to the front of the house (built 6 years ago).

Telephone cable in!

However, from the picture you can see that the house builders (Charled Church) just drilled a hole though the wall to feed the internal wiring to the BT point in the hall. Behind this wall is the kitchen (and kitchen cabinets) and no power supply!

I am assuming that there is no internal ducting for the cable! The hall is not the ideal place for a modem/router so when the house was being finished I asked the builders to run a telephone extension socket into the understairs cupboard. I have been successfully running my modem/router and associated NAS stuff from this extension socket. There is no trunking (conduit) from this extension socket to the master socket in the hall so assume the cable is buried in the floor somewhere!

The house is a semi detached house with the kitchen on the right hand side of the front door and downstairs lavatory on the left. The BT junction box is just outside our gate, so very convenient for us and BT.

Front of house.

As mentioned earlier there are kitchen cabinets against the outside wall of the kitchen. I am wanting the fibre to feed the Openreach supplied ONT into my router, which is in the understairs cupboard. From the front of the house there is the downstairs loo, then staircase - understairs cupboard.  Is getting the fibre feed through to the understairs cupboard going to be my challenge?   Will I have to drill through the lavatory wall and feed/install flexible conduit behind the plasterboard into the understairs cupboard?  Should I wait to see what the Openreach engineers suggest? 

I do not want a cable (any cable) tacked around my skirting board, even if it is full fibre!!!!

Any ideas greatfully received.

[licquorice]

First of all the fibre doesn't connect to your router,it connects to an optical modem (ONT) that is fitted where the cable enters. The ONT connects to the router via Ethernet. Wait and see what the Openreach engineer suggests.

[JetLag]

Thanks Licquorice
"connects to an optical modem (ONT) that is fitted where the cable enters"
Of course, I was aware of that having already investigated ONTs!

[Starwire]

Unfortunately your house has a bit of an awkward layout for putting in additional cabling, to where you want it anyway.

If you want the cabling going through the downstairs ‘loo’ as you call it I’d personally drill the hole and fit the conduit yourself for two reasons.

1. Openreach Engineers don’t really carry conduit, they can order it but none really carry it. Maybe only those who work for BCD or the the SD ones who work in offices a lot.

2. Not many Engineers will be willing to drill holes in a toilet/bathroom. To many risks involved as the chances of hitting a water or worse waste pipe.

The hole drilled to the outside needs to be 10mm. 

Then the hole inside needs to be widened to 12mm so that the Engineer can fit the Internal Lead In Kit. That’s about 1 and a 1/2 inches wide so make sure the exit hole is at least a few inches above the skirting board.

[Frelon]

Thanks Starwire

That's what I thought, sadly!

I will wait for the OR engineer to lay the cable to the front of the house, discuss the project feasibility and send him on his way!

Thanks for the specifics, just what I was looking for.

With a pull through in the conduit what angles are allowed?

Why the house builders have not thought about laying a conduit for fibre until the last minute is shocking!

When refurbishing a house in France 20 years ago there had to be a green conduit laid ready for fibre!

[Starwire]

The EZ Bend Cable Openreach use has then bend radius to that of a £2 Coin.

[JetLag]

Great news, thank you for the info.

Watch this space, I will let you know how it goes!

[JetLag]

OK Chaps, sorry no further forward! Openreach were a hive of activity in middle of September, man down hole (Picture 1)  said "You will have FTTP by end of September!"

Now beginning of November and we have seen nothing of Openreach for 6 weeks! Have managed to work out a way to get fibre optic cable into house but need to ask here for info relating to the cable size! No Openreach engineer to ask!

In an earlier post Starwire said that hole size through wall needs to be 10mm (No problem already done, see Picture 2). Then indicated that the inside needs to be widened to 12mm for the internal lead in kit.

My questions are (a) what diameter is the fibre optic cable? and  (b) will it pass through my conduit (internal diameter 6mm)

I am planning that the conduit will go up into the attic (via the internal soil pipe trunking!) and down behind the plasterboard into my understairs cupboard. Some 15 metres or so.

Any help is appreciated. Many thanks and stay safe!

Edit: I now see (another posting by Starwire) that the current fibre offering from Openreach is about 8mm in diameter so will have to change my conduit to an internal diameter of 10mm. Not a problem as nothing set in concrete, yet!