“Fibre to BT Pole”?

[redkite2]

Hi

Our BT broadband is “fibre to cabinet” (FTTC) and the cabinet is located some 165m from the BT pole from where an overhead copper cable runs to our (old) terrace house. The cable then runs down the hall and round two door to a router located under the stairs, a total length of say 35m. We have some ethernet cables connected to the router.

As understood, installing “full fibre” (FTTP) to the existing router location is not feasible and the “now the norm” router (with power) location of just inside the front wall of the house would raise all sorts of problems for us.

However, there is “plenty of kit” at the top of the BT pole (and on other poles in the area). Am I right in thinking that it is possible that some houses might be on an intermediate “Fibre to BT pole” configuration?

(A) If such an intermediate configuration does exist, what is its formal BT name?

(B) We currently have a reliable 84Mbs download speed. Would reducing the total length of copper from some 200m to say 35m significantly increase our (potential) download speed?

(C) We are told that FTTC does not support Digital Voice, might the intermediate configuration do so?

[Crimliar]

The intermediate system you mention sounds like the manner in which GFAST (an xDSL varient) was deployed in some areas.  It was never a common deployment and I believe is being phased out in favour of regular FTTP.

New FTTP installs require power to the ONT that is commonly fitted on the inside of a supporting exterior wall.  But in most cases it's then possible to run an Ethernet cable from the ONT to where you want the router.  My own ONT isn't where I need the router, so I've a very nice, long, white, flat, 2.5Gbps capable Ethernet cable running to the router.  It works, and its not obtrusive, though having played with Ethernet for years, I'd always have a backup cable - just incase!

[licquorice]

Fibre to the pole does not exist, you can't fit a DSLAM at the top of a pole!!!

G.Fast is delivered from the cabinet.

DV doesn't require FTTP, it can be delivered via FTTC

The location of the ONT is negotiable within reason with the installer. The router can be up to 100 metres from the ONT.

[iniltous]

Fibre to the pole does sort of exist , called FTTrN , Fibre to the remote node , it’s not used by Openreach but is comparable to FTTC in its hybrid technology ,  the ‘fibre’ is brought to a nearby point to the customer ( and that doesn’t really matter if it’s a cabinet or the DP at the top of a telegraph pole although FTTrN can deliver superior speeds to FTTC )  , but in most instances FTTrN is pretty pointless if the final ‘span’ is only a 10’s of meters or low hundreds of meters in the worst cases , why convert from fibre to copper for that final span , FTTrN would only be useful in certain rural areas, and from OR point of view, FTTP is the way to go.

If your individual requirements are to use copper cables inside your property, that’s what the Ethernet connection between the ONT ( the optical network termination ) and your router actually is , but if you individually want to use the existing twisted copper pair  ‘internal extension ’ cable that exists within your property something that’s not catered for , if there is some ‘specialist’ kit available to make use of it (although I can’t see why anyone would want that ) you would have  to explore that yourself, but it’s a somewhat nonsensical approach to take , you simply install Ethernet cabling if the ONT has to be some way away from the router , or relocate the router and use AP’s or similar.

If you are on FTTC it’s impossible for you to be on over 80Mb download, that’s in excess of the FTTC maximum, you could be on Gfast , but that's basically advanced FTTC that’s offered on some short lines 

[redkite2]

Many thanks!