City Fibre - Routing of cable

Warslet

I would like to have FTTP installed.   It would be via City Fibre as the connection is on the pathway on the edge of the property. The property is detached. My neighbour had FTTP installed recently and the contractors routed the cable to his front door.  This is not convenient to me as my master (BT) socket is at the back of the house.  Has anyone any experience with City Fibre in having the new cable routed to where they want it rather than where the contractor decides? Cabling would be on external walls in part but would have to go through a garage. I did contact Zen who said to cancel if the contractor doesn't locate it where I would prefer it to be and revert back to BT (who I'm currently with). Zen gave the impression it can be routed to where I want it to go.   

daveyjp

Contacting Cityfibre woukd be your best option.  My Cityfibre installer was third party contractor who asked where I wanted the cable routing from the Openreach pole.

The location was actually dictated by availability of power as Cityfibre hardware needs two power sockets.  One for the Cityfibre network box and one for the broadband modem.

matelodave

FTTP isn't really the black art that some people make it out to be and its more robust than it used to be now people have experience in installing it..

Its not difficult to get the fibre cable to go wherever you want it. Its less than 6mm in diameter (sometimes a lot less) but you need to be aware of its bending radius, so its down to negotiation with the installer how sharp the corners it can manage and how much time and effort he's prepared to allocate to locate it where you want it.

However,  as said above, it needs to get to the Optical Network Terminal Unit which has to be reasonably close to a mains socket (unless you want an extension lead trailing across the floor).

Likewise the router has to be reasonably close to a mains socket but you can run a data cable between the two so they can be as far apart as you like assuming that you can get a cable between them.

My NTU is around ten metres from the router and connected with a length of Cat5A cable through the loft.

iniltous

When you say the connection is in the pathway on the edge of the property what does that actually mean ? , have CityFibre installed their own footway ‘toby box’ at the curtilage of your property, so if you order their service, they will install a cable from this point to your property, excavating your garden in the process , or is this ‘connection’  in the pathway , within an Openreach footway box and they would use any existing Openreach duct between the footway box and your home , obviously if they use the existing OR duct to your  house that sets the point where the cable will appear on your wall , they will install some sort of splice point where the duct appears , and from here run another cable ( spliced to the cable in the duct ) to the location of their ONT , presumably if it’s possible to get this cable to where you want it , (if it’s a practical proposition )  , and can be done in a reasonable timeframe , then they probably will do what you want , if it’s not practical, or will take hours to accomplish, they will probably refuse.p and insist on a different location for the ONT .

You need to  consider that if CF directly employ the installer, they probably give them 4 or 5 jobs per day and allow maybe 1-1.5 hours per job including travel between them , and expect them to be completed, if they employ contractors they probably pay per completion , if your install will take (for example) 3 hours because of the way you expect service to be run , the installer will probably refuse to spend that amount of time and come up with reasons   (apart from cost ) as to why they won’t do it that way.
As stated the ONT needs to be near a power outlet , this may mean that you wanting it near the existing Openreach NTE may not be practical anyway.

As far as reverting back to BT , the sensible approach would be to get CF installed and working before contacting BT to cease their service, ordering with CF , unless you are porting your phone number , will not cause BT to cease service, you will have to do this yourself, there is no ‘connection’ between orders on CF and BT because CF don’t use Openreach 

BUFF

Warslet said:

I would like to have FTTP installed.   It would be via City Fibre as the connection is on the pathway on the edge of the property. The property is detached. My neighbour had FTTP installed recently and the contractors routed the cable to his front door.  This is not convenient to me as my master (BT) socket is at the back of the house.  

City Fibre won't use your master (BT) socket, they would install their own+cabling.

Warslet

I am now in a position to have FTTP installed. I have delayed it as I had a home alarm system linked to my phone line via copper wire. I have now changed to wireless as I understand telephone connections via copper wiring will cease in 2025 and changing broadband provider would also change any home phone connection to digital. I am considering Zen, Cuckoo or No One (the latter has great reviews but no comments on this forum).  Any experiences would be helpful.  Thank you. 

400ixl

Zen would be my pick, very good services and reputation for many years now. Haven't heard anything negative of the others, but Zen just on the length of time they have been around.

Rob5342

They tend to be quite amenable in my experience and are quite flexible in where they put things, but they are going to be limited in the amount of time they can spend on it. When they did a neighbours house they ran the fibre along the front of the house and then though their garage to their lounge.

They install a box called an ONT, the fibre goes into that and then an ethernet cable runs from that to your router. One option would be to get then too install that somewhere discreet and then run an ethernet cable yourself to where you want the router.

How does the cable get to your master socket? 

Warslet

Thank you 400ixl and Rob5342. My current provider is BT and when they installed their cable several years ago they did it from a previous master socket to a new one in my lounge by running the cable on an outside wall.  Not seen from the road and about 8 to 10 metres in length. 

iniltous

The existing Openreach cables/equipment are irrelevant if you are using City Fibre , apart from CF extensively use Openreach jointboxes , ducts and poles via PIA ( Government permission to use another company’s assets) , because you say CF  have installed a footway Toby Box  outside your home , from that point onwards everything will be new CF equipment, they shouldn’t touch or interfere with  OR ‘s network , like reusing sockets , even if you want them to , if you are getting a phone service with your CF broadband it will be using the CF router , they may ( or may not ) provide an extension socket for the phone  if that what you want .

Rob5342

The position of your existing master socket doesn't have a lot of bearing on where CityFibre will install things, they'll install an ONT with new fibre running to it. Most FTTP ISPs dont provide a phone service, and with those that do the phone plugs into the router itself or a seperate adapter plugged into it. There will never be a wall mounted phone socket. The only reason the master socket position might have a bearing is if its positioned near to where the underground duct comes to the house, and CityFibre put their fibre through the same duct. If they are laying a new duct from their pavement box then things will be a lot more flexible.

Is there any particular reason why you want it installed near your old master socket? You could have the ONT installed somewhere discreet and conenct it to a power line network adapter, and then put the router wherever you want with another power line adapter. Alternatively you could have the ONT and router near where the cable comes in, and then use power line adapters and ethernet swtiches for any wired devices you have.

I had my ONT installed by the front door, right behind the external box, and I ran my own ethernet cable through some mini trunking into my lounge where I have the router.