Question about Openreach laying cables.

[ickpers]

Weve had bt, or openreach or whoever digging up the pathways round where I live. My wife was briefly talking to one of them and he said they were laying cables for ultrafast broadband.

They've not been back since and Im very keen to know what exactly we are getting, and maybe even when we'll be getting it.

Ive been googling this and I have some questions, id be really grateful if someone could answer them 🙂

1. Are the cables being laid fireoptic?

2. If they are fibreoptic are we still going have copper from our house to the new cables?

3. Are we going to be connected to the green cabinet up the road, or directly to the exchange now?

4. How long does it take for the work to be completed and we can change to ultrafast?

5. Whats the difference between ultrafast 100 and 250. By this I mean how does a house achieve ultrafast 250 as opposed to 100. Im sure its related to the cabling.

Thanks!

[licquorice]

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@ickpers wrote:

Weve had bt, or openreach or whoever digging up the pathways round where I live. My wife was briefly talking to one of them and he said they were laying cables for ultrafast broadband.

They've not been back since and Im very keen to know what exactly we are getting, and maybe even when we'll be getting it.

Ive been googling this and I have some questions, id be really grateful if someone could answer them 🙂

1. Are the cables being laid fireoptic?

Quite possibly, you would need to ask whoever is laying the cables. This is a BT Retail forum and has no connection with Openreach or anybody else laying the cables.

2. If they are fibreoptic are we still going have copper from our house to the new cables?

You may have both copper and fibre cables dependent on whether the voice service (if required) is still delivered by the copper cable or via the fibre. It varies with location currently.

3. Are we going to be connected to the green cabinet up the road, or directly to the exchange now?

Neither, you will be connected to a fibre head end exchange which may or may not be your local exchange. However it is immaterial as distance is not a concerne for fibre.

4. How long does it take for the work to be completed and we can change to ultrafast?

How long is a piece of string

5. Whats the difference between ultrafast 100 and 250. By this I mean how does a house achieve ultrafast 250 as opposed to 100. Im sure its related to the cabling.

Its just a software cap, the physical infrastructure is exactly the same.

Thanks!

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[iniltous]

Assuming it’s Openreach or an OR contractor and it is ‘fibre’ cables etc that are being installed, and assuming you are a BT customer, if you do nothing , then it’s likely that nothing will change, you will continue to get service in the same way as you currently do.

If you are contacted by your provider and asked if you want to ‘upgrade’ to FTTP, with no change to contract term etc,  then whatever product you chose , with FTTP, you generally get that headline speed , unlike FTTC or exchange based ADSL, distance isn’t an issue , there is no distance related reduction in speed.

If you approach your provider and ask to be provided by FTTP, then requesting a speed that is greater than what ‘copper’ can deliver will obviously get you moved to FTTP, ( if your provider offers OR FTTP ) if you want a maintain the speed you have , and that can be delivered over whatever you are currently on (ADSL or FTTC ) , so you want ( for example ) 40 Mb , and currently get it from FTTC, it’s unclear if your provider will upgrade you on that basis , but long term that will happen as PSTN is replaced.

The existing copper cable will probably remain for those that change to FTTP, in some cases the copper will continue to deliver the phone service, in other cases the copper cable is redundant and the phone service is delivered via the router and FTTP broadband, but it’s unlikely that anyone will recover the wire even if it isn’t used.

Software capping on FTTP simply reduces bandwidth to whatever you pay for , you can get 40Mb over FTTP if you want , or the same fibre can deliver 900Mb if you want it , obviously you pay more for a 900Mb service

[ickpers]

Thankyou for those answers!!

1. Oh I see now that copper can handle up to 300mbps 😞
2. Thanks!
3. Thanks!
4. I know i was stretching it with that question 🙂
5. Thanks!

After reading your answer for number 5 I just went for another google and my excitment has went down greatly! I thought fireoptic was 1000 like in the USA etc (London and other big cities have this too I think). Ultrafast 100 is 145mbps and 250 is 300mbps according to the website I was reading.

Now im assuming its not fibre optic cables at all and is some other type of cable 😞 Really doesnt help calling it ultrafast, I think my assumptions were warranted. Though im still not sure why bt would go to all the trouble of digging up all the pavements for this. Hopefully they will be back so I can ask them what the cables are!

[iniltous]

It’s unlikely that OR are putting in a copper cable and calling it ultrafast, some ultrafast speeds can be delivered by Gfast, but that doesn’t require upgrading cables....if it’s FTTP , then you can get Gb speeds, although it’s marketed as 900Mb

[ickpers]

@iniltous Thanks for this, it was very helpful. I didnt know that about the speed and im learning here atm how this all works. I was thinking of just copper vs all fibre. Ill upgrade if it becomes available. Our internet gets us by but its not great if someone was watching 4k for example.

I still think im missing something here though with full fibre vs what I have now. The diagram on the bt website for full fibre shows fibre from house to exchange. It shows traditional fibre as copper from house to street cabinet, and then fibre from cabinet to exchange. I feel like im in the middle of those two somehow. Ill be copper from house still, so how does that connect to the fibre cables being laid atm?

Hope what ive said isnyt too confusing 🙂

Theres an availability checker on openreach, I can keep checking that.

[licquorice]

The two systems are entirely independent. FTTC is fibre from the exchange to the local green cabinet and then copper to the house for the broadband component. The telephony component with FTTC is copper all the way back to the exchange.

With FTTP, there is no copper involved at all for broadband. The fibre originates in a head end exchange and is distributed to individual premises by means of optical splitters, there is no connection to the copper network whatsoever.

Telephony (if required) is currently delivered in one of 2 ways. Either the old copper service remains and thus no change to your house wiring or via Digital Voice which uses the broadband fibre in the form of VOIP. The BT hub is a DECT base station and provides the telephony independently of your existing wiring for DV. Eventually the copper service will be retired and all telephony will be via VOIP.

Hope that clarifies things.

[iniltous]

If your area is being enabled for FTTP , then it appears there at least a couple of ways it can be done, one way ( assuming you are in an underground area , not telegraph poles ) would be to install the full fibre infrastructure to a point where  a fibre distribution point is installed in a joint box in the pavement close to your home, should you or a neighbour then  order a FTTP service , a fibre cable is installed from this fibre distribution point to your home via the duct that already contains the copper cable that delivers your current service, a variation on this seems to be in some areas a fibre cable or draw rope is installed from the fibre distribution point to each property in advance  , regardless of if a service has been ordered, this obviously proves the individual duct to the property is serviceable , rather than discovering it blocked or unusable on the day of the install , causing a delay.

Overhead ( telegraph poles ) areas are similar apart from the fibre distribution point is mounted on a pole , rather than in a foot way box, either way, when FTTP is available the wholesale checker will  show it, it does seem that it’s not always as soon as the local infrastructure is installed that the service is available , as work on the ‘spine’ network may still be required, hence don’t assume if the local work is done you can order service...check the checker first,

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

[ickpers]

Thanks for all the helpful replies, I'm reading through them all now.

Looking again outside our house I'm now thinking the cables have been laid and now a different team are going round repatching the holes. 

[ickpers]

Thankfully just got talking to them outside. They said it's all fibre and no copper at all. But they said the houses directly across the road (which is where the cables are being laid) are getting it, but they aren't digging our side of the road so we may not be able to get it. So only some house would have it here then. Oddly it's the houses that wouldn't want it lol.

I'm going to phone opernreach.