Moving from FTTC to FTTP and back again

skycatcher

Interestingly, I've jsut been on comparison sites and some ISPs are offering FTTP sevices to me and some aren't (even though they have the product) e.g. BT, Sky, EE offered FTTP but Vodafone only offered FTTC!

iniltous

Not all ISP have the necessary cable link interconnects in place in every headend location to offer service over OR  FTTP , on another forum , a contributor was complaining that although FTTP from VF was available via Openreach , the best speed on offer was only 100-200Mb , not the usual 300-1Gb, that was available via other ISP that use OR , the consensus was that VF backhaul capacity probably wasn’t sufficient hence only offering reduced speeds.

skycatcher

Interesting iniltous thanks for that.

Final thought....do you have any say on where OR bring the fibre into your house? My understanding is that they can tap into the fibre in the street at any point. My wife is very fussy about cables and ugly boxes!

iniltous

No they don’t ‘tap’ into the fibre  at any point, it’s a connectorised system , near the property either on a pole ( if overhead service ) or in a joint box in the ground , relatively close by , will be a CBT , connectorised block terminal, the one designated for your property will have a cable ran from it to the property ( once service is requested )  , if it’s overhead , probably attaching close to where the existing copper dropwire attaches to the property , if underground , where the existing underground cable surfaces against the house wall.
The tech who installs the service will probably try and accommodate any reasonable requests for where the service is required once inside the property , but the ONT ( optical network termination ) that the installer fits, needs to be near power sockets ( it plugs into the mains )  usually the router will be located close by.

molerat

When OR cabled a street near us they put a nail and washer in the footpath outside each house, that was where the tap point for that property was located.

skycatcher

molerat said:

When OR cabled a street near us they put a nail and washer in the footpath outside each house, that was where the tap point for that property was located.

I shall go and check our footpath (when the rain is over)!

Whilst walking the dog earlier I checked out the neighbours who have had it installed. They all have the grey terminal box located beside their front doors butr some of them then have a back cable running along the render line and into their living rooms. Would I be right in saying that where the back cable goes into their room is where the internal connection box (needing power) would be?

iniltous

skycatcher said:

molerat said:

When OR cabled a street near us they put a nail and washer in the footpath outside each house, that was where the tap point for that property was located.

I shall go and check our footpath (when the rain is over)!

Whilst walking the dog earlier I checked out the neighbours who have had it installed. They all have the grey terminal box located beside their front doors butr some of them then have a back cable running along the render line and into their living rooms. Would I be right in saying that where the back cable goes into their room is where the internal connection box (needing power) would be?

Yes, the connectorised cable from the CBT terminates outside on a CSP , here it’s spliced to an ‘internal’ fibre cable than runs into the location of the ONT, if the area is underground fed , the CBT will be in a footway joint box , the duct that currently delivers the copper cable is used to deliver the fibre cable too, there shouldn’t be anything in to spot in the path.

matelodave

This will give you a rough idea of what is involved - What’s Involved in an Openreach FTTP Full-Fibre Broadband Installation? | Increase Broadband Speed

Obviously its a bit different depending on the infrastructure that's being installed as it's being continuously evolved and refined.

Mine, for instance, comes overhead from a telephone pole, I dont have an external box, the fibre comes straight from the pole, down the wall and directly into the ONT housing where it was fitted with a field installed connector. My ONT is about four times the size of what is now being installed as its also got a back-up battery

skycatcher

Our area has no overhead so they seem to use a mole to bring the cable from the street to the properties. 

Watched the video and I'm clear now on what is involved. Thanks guys!

skycatcher

iniltous said:

Not all ISP have the necessary cable link interconnects in place in every headend location to offer service over OR  FTTP , on another forum , a contributor was complaining that although FTTP from VF was available via Openreach , the best speed on offer was only 100-200Mb , not the usual 300-1Gb, that was available via other ISP that use OR , the consensus was that VF backhaul capacity probably wasn’t sufficient hence only offering reduced speeds.

Apparently Vodafone use Gigabit  fibre to deliver fttp rather than openreach hence is not available to me.