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Message 1 of 16

Full Fibre Installation

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Openreach have just installed full fibre in our road and I have ordered Full Fibre 100 (free upgrade on my current FTTC).

An Openreach chap came the other day to mark up where the ducts will go. I was under the impression that they will tee off the new big duct they laid passing my house and just lay a new duct in my garden under the hedge. But he claims they have to fit a new duct along the pavement to the pavement box outside next door's house. Seems a lot of work... When I pointed out the newly tarmacked pavement outside the house he said 'That's City Fibre'. Well that is indeed there as well, but he was adamant there were no Openreach ducts there.

My landline is currently fed from a box next door, and the feed to that to the pavement box was replaced a year ago after a fault. I assumed they had fitted a duct there but he claimed it just ran in the ground. 

Not really my problem but if they have to dig up large bits of pavement every time somebody orders the new system it will take ages..

(and I do have a City Fibre Toby box outside my house, no use to Openreach of course...)

 

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Message 2 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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What does your survey note say on this checker  ( use your address if your phone is on DV ) 

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

you are looking for something similar to 

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues. ( this is the return for a fully ducted property ) 

I suspect that you address will be something like ‘partial DIG’ ( the default method of copper service in the 60’s through to the early 90’s ) ,

it once was the case that in areas where the existing Openreach cables were direct in the ground ( DIG ) they would built a new ducted network to the curtilage of each address ( apparently this is what City  Fibre has done in your area  ) but with the way that Ofcom and PIA work , an alternative network provider like City Fibre could use this new infrastructure if OR built it , they could even use it  before Openreach ( if the customer ordered   CF for example ) , the City Fibre infrastructure cannot be used in the same way by Openreach , so it seems OR now only build the duct to the property as an when an order is made even though it potentially means many visits to the same ‘street’ excavating each time .

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Message 3 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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"Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG partial Direct In Ground."

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Message 4 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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As suspected , partial DIG , so although there are usable joint boxes in the footpath and ducts  existing between them , there is currently no ducted path to each individual property or a toby box on the curtilage , and given the relatively recent policy change ( presumably so as to not give competitor company’s an even bigger leg up by providing ducts to curtilage of every property in the street before any orders for service have been received ) and as said once this duct exists there is nothing stopping competitors putting their cables in these new ducts , City Fibre however can build to each property safe in the knowledge that only CF will be able to use this infrastructure , so not danger of them ‘helping out’ their competitors .

As you suggest , if an individual property orders FTTP in this scenario, depending on how far away the jointbox containing the appropriate CBT is from the property, then a significant amount of duct work could be needed , but the OR policy makers must think it’s cost effective   to do it this way , presumably one of the reasons for the change of policy was the expense of the old system , for example say ducting 20 addresses in a street and maybe getting three or four customers on FTTP , so 16 addresses that could  get FTTP from OR based ISP , but chose not to , using competitors like VM or happy with what the already have ) and making life even easier for direct competitors ( no longer having any real ‘civils’ expense ) they come along and obviously can be cheaper, after all they haven’t had any expense of the civils work  , and only have to pay a peppercorn ‘rent’ for putting their kit in the OR infrastructure.

If Ofcom had made PIA ( physical access infrastructure ) reciprocal, so OR could use City Fibre or Virgin Media or anyone else’s boxes and ducts etc in the same way these companies can use OR ,   there wouldn’t be the need to do this constant digging of footpaths , but it’s not a reciprocal arrangement.

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Message 5 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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Openreach did start to put Toby Boxes in like CityFibre has during their FTTP Build but ended up scrapping the idea due to cost.

Openreach FTTP has a 30% Sale Take Up within the first 12 months of it being built/commissioned.

The cost per metre to dig and lay duct is something like £115 give or take.

What they’ll do now is when a customer orders FTTP they’ll simply Duct to their house and can then continue to extend and or T into it as and when others order it.

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Message 6 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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Thanks. Presumably the main duct carrying the system fibre between the two joint boxes outside here cannot be tee-d into. They laid a fairly large grey duct for this. Two houses down already has the new fibre, presumably if next door between us chooses they can grab it from either mine of his duct... Neighbour the other side seems totally uninterested anyway, they don't care what sort of broadband they have as long as it works.

What is the timing for switching over to Digital Voice, will that be done on the same day as the final install? I have already received the new hub 2, presumably this has been pre-configured to interface via the WAN ethernet port so there is no point in putting this in until then.

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Message 7 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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Yeah, they can use that Duct. The Civils Team just need to use a Duct 54/56 Swept Bend T.

Looks like this.

IMG_5081.jpeg

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Message 8 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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Nobody answered my other question. I have received a text this morning suggesting I may be switched over to Digital Voice in advance of the full fibre installation. Will the new smart hub 2 connect automatically on my existing FTTC connection without changing the configuration, ie work out the broadband is coming in via the broadband socket rather than the WAN ethernet port? (currently using a Billion router).

>What is the timing for switching over to Digital Voice, will that be done on the same day as the final install? I have >already received the new hub 2, presumably this has been pre-configured to interface via the WAN ethernet port so >there is no point in putting this in until then.

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Message 9 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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Digital voice will work with either FTTP or FTTC, the hub knows whether the WAN is associated with the broadband socket or LAN port 4. No changes to the hub are necessary for DV to work.

Even if the hub is configured in FTTP mode (LAN port 4 configured as WAN), it can still be used on FTTC with an input on the DSL socket.

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Message 10 of 16

Re: Full Fibre Installation

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Thanks, now installed and working on my FTTC. I can see the setting to configure the WAN port, set to on. It has just done a firmware update, which confused me as I was trying to get my smartphone to connect to the wireless at the time. So set up as and when they enable the digital voice.
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