Location of Openreach external plastic cover

MaxterMind

When Openreach is connected to a property, an external plastic "cover" is located on the external wall and the Openreach fibre cable connected to this and into the property. I believe this allows telecoms engineers the potential to work via the external plastic section meaning they do not have to gain entry to the property at a later date.

With this being the case, does this mean, if the possibility existed, that the external Openreach plastic cover could/would not (for example) be connected to the back of a terraced house with an enclosed back yard with a publicly accessible alley outside this, since telecoms engineers would consequently need to be provided with access to the back yard by the householder if they needed to work at the external Openreach cover later on?

Thanks.

JenB79

I assume you're referring to an Openreach fibre Customer Splice Point (CSP) box. This can be located almost anywhere externally, but the further it is away from the fibre entry point to the property, the longer the external cabling. So for most people, I imagine they'd want it as close as possible to the fibre entry point to minimize unsightly cabling.

Btw this is the Openreach CSP fitted outside my home (installed in 2017):

JenB79

And if you're interested in knowing what's inside the CSP......

MaxterMind

Yes, that's it. That's interesting that you don't appear to have cabling going vertically down to the box, but instead upwards.

I would have thought the Openreach cabling could only come from a telegraph post - then connect to the house - then vertically down to the external box.

JenB79

No, Openreach also use underground ducts for fibre like they have done for my install. In my case the fibre comes up in black/yellow tubing to the CSP. Then white cabling goes down from CSP to ONT. 

matelodave

Dunno what they do now for overhead connections, but mine comes straight from the distribution point on the pole across the road and directly into the house without an external splice point. It's then fiited with a field termination connector straight into the the ONT

MaxterMind

JenB79 said:

No, Openreach also use underground ducts for fibre like they have done for my install. In my case the fibre comes up in black/yellow tubing to the CSP. Then white cabling goes down from CSP to ONT. 

So in this case, presumably the underground ducting had already been pre-installed under the public footpath/road at some point and it's just a matter of connecting up to the house.

I guess it won't be available in all residential areas (I'm not out in the country). It would certainly be nicer than connecting to a telegraph post since it would avoid ugly cabling down the outside of the house.

neilmcl

MaxterMind said:

JenB79 said:

No, Openreach also use underground ducts for fibre like they have done for my install. In my case the fibre comes up in black/yellow tubing to the CSP. Then white cabling goes down from CSP to ONT. 

So in this case, presumably the underground ducting had already been pre-installed under the public footpath/road at some point and it's just a matter of connecting up to the house.

I guess it won't be available in all residential areas (I'm not out in the country). It would certainly be nicer than connecting to a telegraph post since it would avoid ugly cabling down the outside of the house.

That's entirely down to how Openereach have rolled FTTP in your area. Clearly there's a lot of places where they can't start digging up the roads/pavements and so in these cases it's done via the telephone pole.

This is what the poles will look like if they've been updated for FTTP:

MaxterMind

matelodave said:

Dunno what they do now for overhead connections, but mine comes straight from the distribution point on the pole directly into the house without an external splice point. It's then fiited with a field termination connector straight into the the ONT

So you don't have one of the external plastic boxes on the outside wall as shown in the photo above?

I had heard that this external box allowed engineers to work at the system at a later date (if required) without having to gain access to the house. Without the external box they would need to gain access to the house, to work at the connection. However, I guess this would be required very rarely.

MaxterMind

neilmcl said:

MaxterMind said:

JenB79 said:

No, Openreach also use underground ducts for fibre like they have done for my install. In my case the fibre comes up in black/yellow tubing to the CSP. Then white cabling goes down from CSP to ONT. 

So in this case, presumably the underground ducting had already been pre-installed under the public footpath/road at some point and it's just a matter of connecting up to the house.

I guess it won't be available in all residential areas (I'm not out in the country). It would certainly be nicer than connecting to a telegraph post since it would avoid ugly cabling down the outside of the house.

That's entirely down to how Openereach have rolled FTTP in your area. Clearly there's a lot of places where they can't start digging up the roads/pavements and so in these cases it's done via the telephone pole.

This is what the poles will look like if they've been updated for FTTP:

Thanks very much for that. I must take a look to see if I can see on any local telegraph posts.

JenB79

MaxterMind said:

JenB79 said:

No, Openreach also use underground ducts for fibre like they have done for my install. In my case the fibre comes up in black/yellow tubing to the CSP. Then white cabling goes down from CSP to ONT. 

So in this case, presumably the underground ducting had already been pre-installed under the public footpath/road at some point and it's just a matter of connecting up to the house.

I guess it won't be available in all residential areas (I'm not out in the country). It would certainly be nicer than connecting to a telegraph post since it would avoid ugly cabling down the outside of the house.

For my install Openreach used existing u/g ducts which houses copper cabling. No digging at all was involved.