Preparing for FTTP - ONT position

[ptrduffy]

Openreach are in the process of bringing FTTP to our neighbourhood.  We're currently in the process of having our flat renovated, and I want to use this opportunity to make sure we can get the ONT where we want it without any visible cables.  I'm hoping for some advice on how to prepare for a future installation.

Currently our copper line enters at the rear of the flat (we're on the ground floor) and runs through our bathroom, then through an internal wall into a cupboard where the NTE is situated (it's an old-style NTE, not a modern NTE 5C if that makes any difference).  As part of the renovation we've had the ceiling in the bathroom lowered, so the copper cable is in the ceiling void.

I'd like the ONT to be in the same cupboard where the NTE currently is (the SH2, an Ethernet switch and patch panel with Cat6 to all rooms are all in there).  The bathroom ceiling isn't finished yet, so I have an opportunity to get some work done now to enable an easy fibre run from the rear wall to the cupboard through the ceiling void.

I've read various posts about putting ducting/conduit in place with a draw rope, and that if this is done it's likely that the OR engineers will use this to get the fibre where I want it.

Can anyone advise on exactly what I should be asking the builder to put in place?  Is it just something like a 20mm PVC electrical conduit?  The existing copper line comes through a small hole in the bathroom window frame - should I get the conduit out through that in advance?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[stevebrass]

Bear in mind that entry point for the fibre cable does not have to be the same as the copper line. 

The installer will fit a wee grey box outside from which the fibre that enters the property runs. The same installer can run cable from there outside - along an external wall before entering the building. 

Hard to comment further without knowing the building  

[wellfan]

I pulled the fibre through from the entry point into my loft area then fed it down into my hall cupboard. The BT guy was quite happy for me to do this as is saved him the hassle of mounting the box outside onto a brick wall, and all the cable pinned that it would have involved.

The BT guy agreed before we started, he took the fibre from the pole outside my house and passed it through the hole in the roof soffit that the BT copper cable came through, I was up in the loft to do the rest. Cable pulled down by me into hall cupboard, sits centrally in our bungalow, and dircetly next room the where i wanted my router positioned. BT guy mounted the grey 'customer service point' box on the wall in the cupboard, and I drilled a hole through into the adjacent room, where he fed the fibre through to the ONT. 

Job completed very quickly, and CSP, ONT and router all exactly where I wanted them. 

So plan ahead, and BT guy might be happy to run with your plan, especially so if it saves him/her some time.

[FTTPlease]

As mentioned previously the FTTP connection may not come in at the same point as the copper wire enters. Although it often does it actually doesn't have to.

OR will look to install the ONT on the inside of an exterior wall. They will NOT typically run fibre from the entry point to another location deeper inside the house. More cable means more cost for OR, right? The amenability of the engineer will have a big impact on this but it's not a bespoke "Where would you like the ONT to go?" service.

If, as I suspect, the ONT does not end up in the same cupboard as your NTE is located then you would need to run a ethernet cable, longer than the one provided by BT, between the ONT and that cupboard so that your SH2 would be close to your Ethernet switch. 

If you do need to do that then you will probably want to have the fibre optic enter the property at a location as close/ convenient to the cupboard as possible.

I think the best way forward is to place the order for FTTP and speak to the installation engineer on the day to determine the best entry point. But feel free to say no them if what they want to do doesn't suit you. This will not cost you a penny, only your time. Doing this just turns the installation appointment into a kind of ad hoc survey, which will help you address your concerns.

[sandra51]

I had FTTP installed last Wednesday and I was very disappointed to find that despite me and a friend preparing an easy route to where I wanted my router, by removing floorboards and laying a cable to allow then to tape the fibre cable to so that they could easily pull the fibre cable under the floor to bring it up where I wanted the ONT box and router, they said that they couldn't do that as the cable wouldn't bend and would break. 

They ended up putting it where I really did not want it, as it is not in a convenient place, but they said that was the only place they could put it. After they left I went outside and I couldn't believe how sharply bent at a right angle the cable from the external junction box to my garage wall was, then how sharply bent it was again to go through the wall. If they had run it where I had prepared it for them to run the cable to there would not been any need to make any bends anywhere near as sharp.

Is the cable too expensive to run approximately another 8 metres or did I just get a couple of not very helpful Openreach engineers?

Is it possible to buy some cable and connect it to the cable and move the ONT box and my router to where I wanted it?

[imjolly]

@sandra51 

you cannot just add fibre cable and extend to where you want

[licquorice]

There is no need to move the ONT, just run an Ethernet cable to where you want the router to be sited.

[sandra51]

Is the cable from the ONT box to the router just a standard ethernet cable then, but with red ends?

Why didn't the engineers say that as I told them that I had an ethernet cable running from my existing router was, under the floor to where they put the ONT box  😡

I have to use that now to connect to my 8 port switch, as I prefer to have everything that has an ethernet port and is static, to be connected by ethernet rather than by Wi-Fi.

They spent more time messing around saying that they weren't allowed to go on the roof to drill through one wall and that they couldn't put it in another place as my kitchen was tiled and they can't drill through tiles when they could have just said run a cable from there to the router.

[sandra51]

Before I saw your post and the one from liquorice I came across this site:

Fibre Termination Point Relocation Kit 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@sandra51 

You can use that Ethernet cable to link the ONT to the Home Hub, so you can put your home hub where you want it, and use all the three remaining Ethernet ports.

The cable does not have to have red ends.