Fibre install

Well what exactly are you getting?

Plusnet IS a BT subsidiary.

In general though if BT send you a pre configured router its simply a case of an ethernet cable between that and the fibre modem, and probably plug a phone into it, or an ethernet dingle as well

Intsalling the fibre is not DIY!

Umm. A digital voice adapter and a smart hub 2

Self install.

Ok.

This is my concern. Do they not charge for this?

In my case the fibre was run from the local telephone pole to the eves of my house. The fibre was run down the wall to a wall mounted external box near ground level. A hole was drilled through the wall and an internal box mounted very close to the hole. A short fibre connected the external and internal box. The internal box required a nearby mains supply into which the wall wart power supply for the internal box was plugged. This took two technicians around 30 minutes.

My Zen Internet supplied Fritzbox router is connected to the internal fibre box by a 3 metre long ethernet cable. My router should have been configured remotely by Zen minutes after the connection to the fibre link and the Citylink Fibre technician should have demonstrated the connection speed. Zen f****d up and it took a phone call by myself to their technical line* for them to talk me through manually setting up some parameters. As an existing Zen customer they seemed not to have linked the new (replacement) router they sent me with my existing account - they use the router unique CWMP account identity for remote configuration.

• Zen Internet have a UK based technical help line and in my experience the technical staff seem to know what they are doing. They don't go through a meaningless script if you clearly tell them the problem. If someone cannot answer the question or solve the problem I've always been quickly passed to another department that can. If they say they will phone back I've always had a phone call within the stated time span. Where I've been told that updates for a problem happen overnight I've had emails the next day asking if the problem has been solved and if the ticket can be closed.

Only if you want a BT engineer to come out @ £50/hour

In my case Zen Internet and Citylink fibre I got a new router and the physical fibre installation at no extra cost. The only cost was for a 18 month contract at their published monthly rate. Possibly overkill for my current usage but I have a 0.5G fibre link.

You can have BT with digital phone without fibre to the premises. And fibre to the cabinet is self-install for the user.

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, alan_m snipped-for-privacy@admac.myzen.co.uk> writes

No help to Tim I realise, but the above exactly mirrors my experience of dealing with Zen for the last ten years.

Since when was it £50/hour?

Even 30 odd years ago BT warned that if you called them out and the fault was your side of the master socket it would be a charge in excess of £100.

downstream of the ONT yes, but Tim doesn't have any fibre except in the street, or an ONT

I rang up to arrange the contract etc, and installation date.

There were a few texts to confirm dates etc.

The engineer turns up and does it. In my case, there were two for part of the time as a ladder climb was involved. The engineer was happy to place the modem where I wanted etc. - in loft storage area. There is a Network cable from there to where I have my router etc.

No installation charge.

At the time, there was a 3 month free deal which, even as an existing customer (with fibre to cabinet) I got.

I wasn't expecting a new router but was sent one.

Once the engineer had done the fibre and modem install, the router was plugged into the modem via a ethernet cable (in my case the two are some distance apart and I already had a suitable cable in place), and it all worked.

It took a couple of hours - ours fibre is carried via telegraph poles- so they needed two engineers for safety.

Our neighbour recently switched to BT fibre. The BT vans seemed to be outside around the same length of time. Chatting to him the other day, like me, he is very happy with it.

:-) Point taken.

So come the day, engineers will arrive with a reel of fibre optic cable. Run this from the existing outlet on the roadside pole to the wall of my house. Down the wall and connect through to an internal fibre modem in my office fed from an adjacent 13 amp socket. Job done no charge.

My involvement is to plug in the supplied router and voice adapter when their internal box shows the appropriate coloured lamp.

Fine so far except my office is the worst possible place for wi-fi distribution and the hard wired telephone outlets are fed from the current intake point in the loft.

I can *back feed* the telephone signal from my office to the loft for distribution but am going to be stuck over wi-fi as there is only one cat 6 cable.

There's probably "stuff that can be done" if necessary, but get the fibre install under your belt first.

That would be fine for me except we have two lofts separated by an original cavity wall. In exchange for a few notes, the telephone engineer was happy to use a phone cable I had laid in ready. I could install a blue poly duct and draw wire if this is likely to be acceptable.

My understanding has been that the fibre termination and entry point are required to be at ground level.

They ought to allow it to "fly" from the pole to e.g the eaves, then drop outside to the termination box and go back up to the first floor to go indoors at that point, provided they see two 13A sockets there.

nice coffee and biccies at the ready?

If you have data points in other rooms then simply get a WiFi Access device and plug it in, it is what I had to do in my office attached to my garage as the foil backed insulation blocked signals from my existing WiFi despite the rest of the garage getting a good signal. You may not have to get more than one access point to get good WiFi. My access point only does the office for the reasons above.

Alternatively you could go for a mesh system but they were quite pricey when I looked into them.

You can do that, but possibly easier to use the existing cat6 to patch the ethernet out of the ONT to somewhere else that you want the router to be sited.

OK, that means ou then have to use wifi in the room the ONT remains in.

Have you been duped into signing up for a new FTTC contract (which ISPs will insist on calling “fibre”) rather than full FTTP? That would explain why they’re calling it a “self install”.

Tim

They may waive the install fee against a year plus contract at screw you rates