FTTP now available

Supatramp

I have received a letter from BT telling me that FTTP is now available,  with a phone number to contact.

Our existing FTTC is via a line which goes from the back of our house, through a hedge, over our neighbour's back garden, to a pole in a back garden in a row of houses behind us.  However, there is a BT manhole in the road right outside our house, which is semi-regularly opened by OR engineers, and when they were working in it last year, and several others in the neighbourhood, I was told by the engineers that they were preparing for FTTP.

So my question is, if I was to go for FTTP would it be liable to be supplied via the manhole, rather than the existing setup, via the pole?  If FTTP is supplied to the house via underground cable, then it would be a pretty simple job to install the ONT at the existing position of the master socket, which is next to a plug socket.  And is only about 20' from where the cable could enter the house.

Browntoa

The fttp will be supplied via the existing route . The optical fibre is run to the pole and then new termination units fitted at the top.

matelodave

Have a look at the top of the pole to see if an optical terminating unit has been installed on it - if so then it's likely that the optical connection will be run overhead. 

It looks a bit like this - Where I live they are dotted around all over the place, on poles for overhead connections and in many places in the village, just mounted on walls where the fibre is nailed to walls, just like the old copper cables were.



this is what they use in a manhole, so how it gets to your house would depend on what they've installed where you live

Supatramp

Thanks Browntoa and Matelodave.

So if it comes via the existing route, from the pole, does it follow the existing route of the cable inside the house?  Confused.com!

I hear stories of boring holes in house walls!?

spannerzone

You may want to wait until after March, if you signed up now, in March they'd apply the 14% yearly increase  to your account I imagine.

[Deleted User]

My FTTP connection is via an existing telephone wire duct from a gulley in the street. The line is connected to an external Customer Service Point: a box on the external wall. You then need to decide where you want the wall-mounted mode ( Optical Network Terminal). The supplier will need to drill a hole (similar size to Sky) to connect the ONT to the CSP. You then plug your router (no modem needed) to the ONT.

iniltous

 It the majority of cases following the existing copper route is what’s used , so overhead if currently overhead , underground if current underground but not 100% of the time.
If you use the DSL checker , with your address , or phone number if a BT customer not on DV, 

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

Below the availability and speed predictions should be the survey return , something like SDU , overhead , line of sight issues, no anticipated issues , UG D56 built to curtilage, post your survey return,
if it says overhead it’s likely that the same route the copper line has will be used unless some new Openreach poles have appeared in the recent past 

Supatramp

iniltous said:

 It the majority of cases following the existing copper route is what’s used , so overhead if currently overhead , underground if current underground but not 100% of the time.
If you use the DSL checker , with your address , or phone number if a BT customer not on DV, 

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

Below the availability and speed predictions should be the survey return , something like SDU , overhead , line of site issues, no anticipated issues , UG D56 built to curtilage, post your survey return,
if it says overhead it’s likely that the same route the copper line has will be used unless some new Openreach poles have appeared in the recent past 

Clicking on that link, it says that there is "potential line of site problems".  Also that the exchange is "not in a current fibre priority programme".

None the wiser! lol

Supatramp

spannerzone said:

You may want to wait until after March, if you signed up now, in March they'd apply the 14% yearly increase  to your account I imagine.

My contract doesn't expire until December.

iniltous

The priority exchange program is irrelevant, the survey network note is present , potential line of sight issues , means that the CBT for your address is on effectively on same pole as existing copper connection, but at survey they realised that it’s not a straightforward route , if the pole were directly at the front or rear of the property and the installation would be ‘simple’ it  would show , overhead , no anticipated issues .
The chances are the DSL checker should also show KCI2 or two stage install, in effect , should you order FTTP , before you get a contractual date , Openreach visit and put in place any mitigation needed  to get around the potential line of sight issue  , although not your issue , typically that network note would be if a large tree were between the pole and the property, then tree pruning would be arranged, in your case it could mean that they confirm access to the pole in someone else’s garden is available etc, in other words, they try to remove issues so that on the contractual day they don’t ‘fail’
If the mitigation cannot be arranged, say for example the home owner with the pole refuses access to it , then the delay isn’t OR ‘fault’ so no compensation due.

molerat

They have just installed it on my daughter's pole.  The checker shows line of sight problems - trees. The vast majority of the houses supplied by that pole have the same issue, the pole is right next to a big tree which has been causing problems with the existing copper, but they don't seem to want to do anything about it.