Different Pole for FTTP

[AndyDo]

Hi. FTTP is starting to become available in my area. Although it may still be some time off I'm planning ahead. The old copper line comes into the back of the property, very high, from a nearby pole - and must be the equivalent of wire armoured cable as it's under some of next door's sharp, slate roof tiles and yet has worked well for many, many years. The problem for a new fibre installation though is that we've had various extensions to the house over the years making the old cable entry point very difficult to reach. Because of neighbouring properties there's no other viable route - from that pole. But.....there is a different pole further up the road on the front of the house which has line of sight access to our front bedroom. Would a different pole be an option for a new fibre installation or does it need to be off the same pole as the original copper wire?

Thanks. 

[pippincp · Accepted solution]

That's difficult to answer. As FTTP is rolled out one of the first things that is looked at is the route of supply to each property.

Your property may well still be able to be supplied from the same pole. The original entry point has no bearing on how it may be supplied now. It is very unusual for it to be changed.

Pointless worrying about it as there is nothing you can do except order it when available. Openreach will know what it needs to supply you and will have designed the network to do so.

[AndyDo]

thanks for that - and yes - I'm worrying about something I have no understanding of and no control over! - I'll wait and let them sort it! 

[chrisjp]

An issue with Openreach planning in advance the cable route to your house for FTTP is that their planning will assume that the entry point to your house is the same one that feeds your existing copper cable master socket.
But quite a few houses have master sockets that are nowhere near a power socket - which is needed to supply the FTTP ONT.
So in these cases a different house entry point is needed and this may well be better reached from a different pole. But it's not clear how flexible Openreach will be with this, if they've already planned the FTTP setup.

[AndyDo]

Thanks chrisjp - yes - a new single story extension below the original entry point means they'd need ladders on a steeply pitched roof - and then where that appears inside is now at the back of a built in wardrobe - it takes quite a bit of twisting to reach that point, and there's no local socket! Whereas the other pole I mentioned would allow easy access straight into the lounge, right next to a double socket. Let's hope there is some flexibility in their approach.

[pippincp]

Neither the position of the master socket nor original entry point have any bearing on the provision of FTTP or the postion of the ONT.

[iniltous]

You are probably getting ahead of yourself , all addresses are surveyed prior to the network being built and in the overwhelming majority of cases , the place the copper service comes from will be the place FTTP will be delivered from ,

if between when the copper wire was provided and the date of the survey things have changed , so it’s not as easy ( or possibly impossible ) to use the existing pole , that will be noted at survey and the survey may look for alternatives ( like the pole at the front, if the pole at the front is going to be part of the same network ) or  the survey may make the decision to continue to use the pole at the rear  regardless of the potential issues , the survey simply point out that there is a possibility of a problem that will require mitigation, so the survey could be something line ‘line of sight issues’ and built as a 2 stage visit , so the mitigation can be put in place should an order be received…..the pole to the front is only possible if it’s gets a CBT and is connected to the same splitter as the CBT on the pole to the rear , but the address will initially be allocated to the pole at the rear before the survey is completed.

[AndyDo]

No, i gathered that from other peoples questions and answers. It's more that owing to surrounding properties, trees etc the only landing point from the original pole would seem to be where the copper lands now, above a steeply pitched extension roof. We've just had some building work done and even they weren't keen on using ladders on that. 

[iniltous]

Openreach don’t climb on pitched roofs , the FTTP wire doesn’t have to go where the copper wire attaches, they could even continue to use the existing pole , and install an extra feeder pole to change the direction the cable approaches your building from , they have various stand off brackets that can allow a wire to be higher than the gutter line , they could even go down the route of asking permission to attach to a third party wall before yours ( a wayleave required for the attachment ) there are various solutions, but as stated it’s not something you can influence one way or another before the survey, should you happen to spot the surveyor at the time you could have a chat with them but that’s pretty unlikely.

Obviously you can chose what to believe and what to dismiss when reading reply's to question such as this .

[AndyDo]

Thanks for that. I guess they'll always (hopefully) have some way to make it work.