Giganet are laying fibre throughout the village. It's got to the stage where they are putting the cable in the ducting, and I have one of their termination manholes right outside the house.
They finished the work about three weeks ago but came back two days ago to dig the pavement up again. Somebody leave a house brick in the ducting?
Cityfibre ran cables in ducting down my street and then later dug from the manhole to the garden wall of one of my neighbours to install a green cabinet. The other week I saw a city fibre technician climb the existing telegraph poles (next to the green cabinet) to run a new overhead supply to a nearby house. I assume that City Fibre are going to run fibre the same way as the existing copper to houses.
When Telepest (now Virgin) installed their system they dug up the whole pavement and left a access hole / bung in front of all properties. Cityfibre only pulled their cable the whole length of the street through exiting ducting.
A Giganet (door-to-door) salesman called last week, claiming that residents in the neighbourhood had been complaining about broadband speed, which seems unlikely, based on my experience. When I pointed out that it was irrelevant to me as I had a City Fibre connection he claimed that my CF connection was via OpenReach's copper and wouldn't back down when I told him that I had watched the fibre being installed.
Now that Virgin are apparently phasing out email, it seems somebody like Community cable are a lot cheaper. The thing is how good is their service and could I get my virgin phone number put on a very cheap voip service? Brian
Giganet have pulled fibre into the ducts on the estate where I live but the cable going to each of the 160 houses is 4-core swa and not in a duct. This a 70's open plan estate without poles. Now what ?.
You should be able to transfer your number to a cheap voip provider. Number portability is supposed to apply to all providers.
Dave
If you subscribe, they'll send a crew out to lay cable from a termination box in the street (commonly called a Toby) to the termination point on the wall of your property. They may trench or use a mole depending on the circumstances. The advantage of moling is they don't have to dig up surfaces like tarmac footpaths and driveways.
The cable may take a different route from your existing cable run, although I imagine they'll check for drains, gas pipes and similar first.
Theo
If there's a fence they may just tack the fibre cable to it. Most people won't want their nice block paved parking area ripped up. I don't think CityFibre near where I live have had many takers, even if it's just a matter of digging up the lawn.
From what I understand Cityfibre are not an ISP, they just provide the infrastructure. Initially in my area Cityfibre only had one partner selling FTTP but now my ISP (Zen) can provide FTTP using Cityfibre where it has been installed to the street/road. I believe Zen will also use alternative fibre suppliers.
As I wrote before, around my way they appear to be routing fibre to the premises overhaed via existing poles in same way as copper is/was distributed to indivual properties.
Certainly Virgin dug under my fence to the triangular box just outside it, but in the garden they simply ran green, flexible conduit, on the ground, behind the plants, to the end of the fence and then along under the hedge to the house.
If it's like virgin, they'll make a shallow slit with a spade and hide the cable in it. I heard next door's wife wondering what she'd found under the lawn while gardening!
At my daughter's house they just threw the cable over the hedge! Son-in-Law told them to do it properly.
That is how BT OpenReach get fibre to my home.
Virgin are a disgrace.
Virgin did bury the conduit under my lawn, but barely below the surface. I certainly wouldn't risk a lawn spiker!
Chris
Everything Branson touched was, like Branson, a disgrace.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required