OT Fibre connection

That is bribery and corruption of the very worst kind.

I went with BT precisely to maintain my copper circuit and more importantly my local exchange phone number which is widely known.

In practice it means once your FTTP circuit is working you have a couple of months at most before you get migrated to VOIP (or at least that was the situation when I switched to them last October).

I still had real copper POTS during the great Northern Powergrid MFU but not long after that I was compulsarily upgraded to BT's VOIP marketed as "Digital Voice" (since I didn't have a valid excuse not to be).

I understand rollout has now stalled. Shortage of battery units for the vulnerable and/or a rethink of a crazy policy or some such. This gives some indications of the flavour of the discussions about it:

It's not that we have a broadband only line, it is that having switched to Virgin, the old phone line is redundant and has no number (or any other reference that I know of) linked to it any more. It does actually have a dial-tone and I assume that a 999 call would work.

Does it not depend on whether you migrate an existing service or buy a new one?

In my case I had a POTS service with ADSL. I Asked for FTTP to be installed, and the broadband service moved to FTTP, retaining the same static IP address. However I wanted to retain POTS and its number. They were happy to do that, although it does mean I pay for the POTS line in addition to the broadband. From their point of view it was me buying a FTTP service, and retaining but downgrading a POTS one.

There seem to be some variations depending on the local conditions, who you get the service from, and also when it was done.

In my case the service originates at a telegraph pole (one that also carries POTs cables - but not actually the one that carries our POTs services - they don't seem to stick the PON junction points on every pole). They ran a 20m drop cable bundle to the eves, down the wall behind a down pipe, and into some existing trunking I had on the outside of the house that carried the existing POTs wires). From there through a hole in the wall into the under stairs cupboard (where I also have both POTs lines terminate).

They stuck a new PON box on the wall near my existing[1] comms cabinet:

The fibre comes in as an exterior grade lightly armoured cable, that also has a fine copper pair moulded onto the side of it. In my case they brought the whole cable in, and tripped back the copper about 1m before the ONT. Took the rest of the armoured cable into the bigger ONT box, ans stripped it back to the thinner inner insulated fibre, and terminated that into a connector to connect to the PON port on the ONT

(terminating the armoured bundle at an external JB like on TNPs installation seems more common these days)

From there I ran gig ethernet to the WAN2 ethernet port on my router.

The ONT just looks like a PPPoE broadband modem, so tell the router to use PPPoE, and give it your username and password. Set it to "always on" and away it goes.

I was started on the the 160/30 service, but then upgraded to the

The slight irony with that being my router actually runs out of puff at about 420 - 430 MBps inbound:

Much seems to depend on the installer you get on the day.

I showed him where my comms cabinet was, and suggested the easiest route to it from outside.

He was happy to bring the fibre in where I suggested. He added a bracket fixed to the eves (only about 15' up since it is on a single story bit) and attached the drop "wire" to that with wire wrap, and fed it down and into the house where I suggested. He slapped the ONT next to my comms cabinet where there was power available. They did not use an external box.

This may have just been that it happened to also be the easiest install for him as well - but then that is one of the reasons I built my comms hub where I did!

I'd guess that an ALID would work. You need a unique identifier for lines, especially where a single property has multiple lines, so when you say 'activate line' or 'port line to new provider' you get the right one, and not affect another one that happens to be live. The Openreach database understands about more than just properties (look up the postcode of your local hospital and you may find lots of lines going to diverse places like 'mortuary' or 'comms cabinet second floor') but I'm not sure they distinguish within a residential property (ie separate lines to 'living room', 'bedroom' and 'garden shed' would all come under 99 Acacia Avenue)

I'm not sure how you found out an ALID without having an ISP owning the line to ask, though.

Theo

In summary yes, exactly (and what he has in the van) ! When my time comes, I'll be ready prepared (with holes drilled, conduit in place with draw ropes etc) for my favoured and secondary options. And a full set of teabags, coffee, and biscuits !

Ideally, they will be over 50 years old

What, the teabags, coffee, and biscuits?

Doh !   (Mind you, you've never opened my mother's larder !)

Mine was quite happy to do the fibre run to a different gable end at roof level, then down behind a drainpipe and run the fibre around the outside of the house at ground level to underneath my office where the junction box went and then back up behind a drainpipe to near roof level from where it enters my office. It is very neatly done.

Provided that the distance from the junction box to the interior modem point is shorter than their premade interior drop line they don't give a damn where it goes. Mine clearly saw working a fibre cable through the loft along the same path as the copper as completely insane. (which it was but that was how they installed it back in prehistory)

They do want power laid on but mine didn't bat an eyelid at a 4 way extension lead to allow initial systems tests.

They absolutely *require* the junction box and final manual splice joint at or near ground level. The final spice is then made without having to work at height. It is not an unreasonable requirement since the splicing kit would not be easy to use up on a ladder. Joints to the main pole are pre made plug and play optical connectors into junction boxes.

Look to be 12,16 or 24 way ones on the poles round here.

They required a cherry picker to do my pole work since there are (uninsulated) live mains wires sharing the telephone poles.

They certainly will not wear doing a final splice up a ladder. Their SOP says that the grey junction box must be easily accessible at or near ground level so that engineers can test it there and work more safely.

They will run the cable up and down behind a drain pipe if you ask them nicely. Out of sight out of mind and all that. Mine did a very neat job!

Did they splice on-site, or use a pre-terminated length of fibre?

For commissioning they will insist on using the Wifi router that came with their kit of bits and configuring that. If you want to swap it for something else then you will have to fight that battle on your own.

Seems a little odd. They *require* the grey joint box to be at ground level, but the cable runs from it can both be at height. I guess it depends a bit on how much of jobsworth the engineer happens to be.

It doesn't require much more work for the engineer - he still has to drill a hole in a wall somewhere and the pre-made cable kit for the interior run has about 10m of fibre on it.

They have to do ladder work for the initial run in so it makes little difference if they have to tack a cable up and down.

I got a phone with my fibre where the base station gets plugged into the router they supplied. Not that I've ever used it!

From what I have read (and possibly misunderstood), they install the fibre to a box outside and then run an extension fibre inside to an "ONT". I wonder if it is possible to get some fibre off them in advance? When I had my Virgin install, I had already bought appropriate co-ax (matching their requirements) and installed it under the floor from the front of the house (where they needed to bring their cable) to the back (where I have my router, network switch, etc.). and they just connected my cable instead of running their own around the outside wall.

There is just one splice done on site. The one at ground level on the premises that will ultimately be coiled onto a strain reliever spooll hidden in the little grey junction box. ASCII art version:

Pole MultiSocket [3-=--=--=--GableEnd ___c] Modem | / | | Grey Box <spliced>

They have packs of premade drop lines with a plug on one end and packs of customer end lines with a plug on one end. There are strain relievers on the pole and at the house to maintain tension without stressing the cable. There is a minimum bend radius that must be maintained.

They strip the outer sheath and the kevlar armour off the interior fibre for a few feet either side of the joint. Nasty job kevlar fibres will cut into flesh if they catch you. The joint is made in a field splicing jig (rather neat) and then the spare thin fibre lines coiled onto spools inside the grey box. Any problems they break that joint and check each way for a system fault and then remake the joint. No internal access.

My guy had completely done the interior work back to the grey box before someone turned up with the cherry picker for the pole work.

The modem is an inoffensive 3"x3"x1" white plastic box with a few LEDs.

Final system test before going live is that the signal amplitude on the fibre is in the right range - he has a meter for this.

On site they splice the 'cut to the needed length' of feeder from the pole to the thinner (again cut to length) cable that goes to the indoor terminaton box.

Thanks. I put my number in and sown the bottom it said The exchange is not in a current fibre priority programme.

Jonathan