Fibre installation to replace sunk copper cable

[confused365by24]

Hello Everybody. I need some help please. We are in the area designated for Project Gigabit New Forest and are currently talking to Wessex Internet who got the contract.  Our houses are 250m from the cabinet currently reached by Fibre and, because our houses were built in the early 1980s, we believe we currently get our broadband (~60mb/s) via a thick cable without any ducting. Note that our private road has no overhead wires at all.

Our broadband checker entry is as follows....

Wessex Internet have told us that to get fibre they need to dig up the road to install ducting. This  makes sense to me but some other residents are convinced that if we decline Wessex's offer and just wait 2 years, then BT/Openreach will be able to come along and get us FTTP along our existing copper line and without any ducting.  These other residents are quoting marketing blurb from the Openreach website and from the the emails they have got when they have logged interest on the Openreach site. They also think that Openreach will do this for free.

So what I need please is....

1. Confirmation that I'm not going mad, i.e., that if we are going to get FTTP we will just have to get used to the idea of the road being dug up to put in ducting

2. Evidence in the form of links to websites that confirm this so that I can forward to other residents OR a phone number any of us can ring to confirm this verbally.

Huge thanks in advance.

Cheers & Happy New Year

[licquorice]

Of course you can't get full fibre via a copper cable. Light doesn't travel well through metal!!!

If you want full fibre, a cable will need to be provided by one or other company. If no duct exists, one will need to be provided.

No idea where these folks are getting their information from.

[confused365by24]

Thanks for that.  I should have also said that these other residents seem to have become convinced that fibre can be 'pulled through' using the copper cable. My research tells me that 'pulling through' can only be done through a duct. 

[licquorice]

Exactly so.

[Edinburgh-wg]

In my area, copper is buried in the  ground (purpose built duct back in the 60s/70s). Openreach did not remove the old copper wire, nor did they use to pull the fibre through. Instead, they built a completely new duct in the road (in the tarmac) and run fibre through it (they call is blowing from what I vaguely remember) - it took the contractor a week or two. Virgin Media, on the other hand, dug a tiny trench by the side of the road and left their fibre there, partly uncovered in places. Needless to say, they never finished their job and are not offering their services in the area. 

[36ULW]

Wessex Internet will have to dig up the road if they get there before Openreach.

As and when Openreach get there they’ll also have to dig up the road as they can’t use Wessex Internets Duct.

As you say though it’s a Private Road so if Wessex get there first and Openreach come along in say 18 months you could refuse to let them build there.

But ask yourself how long do you think Wessex Internet will be in Business for?

There’s now in excess of 100 Alt Nets Building Fibre in the U.K. and we’re a small Island in the North Sea, there just isn’t the Customer Base available for all these Network Providers/ISP’s to survive. Just like what happened in the early 90’s with the Cable Companies eventually the majority will go bust. 

[jac_95]

Simply put if the Openreach ducts are unblocked and suitable for the fibre cables and the underground chamber or poles are suitable for the distribution nodes/splitters then the Openreach ducts and poles can be used by the AltNets that agree to the Openreach PIA agreements and charges.

To note the Openreach underground infrastructure such as ducts their chambers and even existing poles may need to be replaced as they are blocked, broken or unsuitable.

Though some AltNets prefer not to use Openreach's PIA and digital their own ducts and chambers in the ground.

At the end of the day the ground may need to be dug by Openreach anyway if the existing underground assets are not suitable for the FTTP full fibre infrastructure and need replacing or the network needs expanding in the area.

[iniltous]

If the Alt Net quoted has  been awarded the public funding to provide that area with FTTP , AFAIK there can’t have been a commercial scheme in the offing , so the chances or Openreach , or anyone else  ( who don’t have the public funding for that area ) are very slim …if it were an attractive proposition ( commercially ) then public funding wouldn’t have been necessary