For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
By Colonel Panic
#1856162
Thinking ahead to as when and if we ever get FTTP; our existing copper phone line is overhead coming down the drive, then is buried in a 2.5"(?) plastic conduit for the final 60 metres in to the house. I paid for & installed the ducting etc ~30 years ago as I wanted to get rid of the unsightly overhead wires.

It is likely that trying to pull a new fibre "wire" through the same duct isn't going to work - too many bends etc etc - so I would need to re-dig a trench.

QUESTION: Can I do this in advance of Openreach arriving, and if so can I buy & pre-bury a suitable fibre wire? If so, what is the fibre called & where would I get it from?

TIA
By Bill McCarthy
#1856174
As it happens, a BT contractor arrived on my doorstep 2 days ago and presented me with a wayleave request to install a “superfast” fibre down the edge of my road (550metres) to connect me, and two neighbours. I mentioned that I had major issues with BT regarding the pathetic broadband speed in the past (a guaranteed 1MB) never, ever, over 0.3 MB. It wasn’t his fault of course but he did mention that if I allowed it to proceed I’d be paid just under £4000. I’m with EE ( a subsidiary of BT I believe). I’m between “the devil and the deep blue sea” - I’m not likely to need to improve on the circa 40MB and am in a quandary whether to allow approval.

CP - I’d ask if they intend to do the installation right up to your house.
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By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856179
Normally a fibre connection "pot" will be the termination point at the edge of your property and you can then pay to have fibre run to the house from the pot and connected to the modem/router, you can do it yourself if you can source a suitably terminated fibre cable of the right length (in my case Gigaclear supplied the kit)
By rdfb
#1856183
Bill McCarthy wrote:As it happens, a BT contractor arrived on my doorstep 2 days ago and presented me with a wayleave request to install a “superfast” fibre down the edge of my road (550metres) to connect me, and two neighbours. I mentioned that I had major issues with BT regarding the pathetic broadband speed in the past (a guaranteed 1MB) never, ever, over 0.3 MB. It wasn’t his fault of course but he did mention that if I allowed it to proceed I’d be paid just under £4000. I’m with EE ( a subsidiary of BT I believe). I’m between “the devil and the deep blue sea” - I’m not likely to need to improve on the circa 40MB and am in a quandary whether to allow approval.


Personally I'd ask for an annual fee or something that follows inflation or the RPI/CPI or similar. Because the easement would apply forever. If it's used for 100 years, is £40 a year enough to cover the inconvenience to you of any further works like repairs, etc?

Telecoms companies can force these things legally without the owner's consent if needed, so I believe you do need to be reasonable.
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856189
Bill McCarthy wrote:I’m with EE ( a subsidiary of BT I believe).

If you aren't using mobile broadband, even if you pay EE or pretty much anyone else for the service, they'll still be using OpenReach (wholly owned by BT) lines from your house to the exchange?
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By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856213
If your existing duct is smooth and undamaged, there's no reason it couldn't be used again. Did you leave a draw wire in there, or is the existing cable the only thing in there?

I realise hindsight is useless at the best of times and especially so 30 years later, but if you didn't, you probably should have ;)

You could put a new duct in, but all you need to have in there is a drawstring, no need to put any fibre in there - OR will do that.
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By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856215
Bill McCarthy wrote:As it happens, a BT contractor arrived on my doorstep 2 days ago and presented me with a wayleave request to install a “superfast” fibre down the edge of my road (550metres) to connect me, and two neighbours.

....am in a quandary whether to allow approval...


Well, one of your two neighbours obviously wants it otherwise they wouldn't be doing it, so if you don't allow it, you'll be inconveniencing others. Depends how mean you're feeling!
By Bill McCarthy
#1856230
The fibre installation is part of the overall drive to get everyone “up to speed” - all due to a SNP political promise on delivery, nothing else.
By NigelC
#1856249
Openreach are like many government monopolies hopeless.
We have a similar situation too the OP. Our BT fibre to the box copper to the house was barely 2mbps so we started the change to fibre to the house as a point had been installed just outside our boundary.
An Openreach survey team turned up and inserted a draw "string" , actually a flexible plastic rod down the 30m duct to the boundary and told us it was a simple installation, all we needed to do was decide where we wanted the fibre cable to enter the house.
A week or so later we got an estimate for £17,000 to excavate a trench all the way up the driveway and across a block paving area to install the cable, the drawing even showed the existing duct. It took 7 months and 5 visits the final one being the southern area installations manager before they decided to do what the original survey team had suggested after which it took one visit to get fibre to the house and a second visit to get the external box connected into the house, and being under the cutoff installation cost (£2,000 ?) was free.
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By kanga
#1856264
NigelC wrote:Openreach are like many government monopolies hopeless.
..


AIUI, not a 'government monopoly' but a 'government-authorised private monopoly', having being spawned by BT and so ultimately from privatisation of GPO Telecomms. It could be argued that the management of such 'enterprises' have little incentive not to be 'hopeless' from the customer POV, being now answerable neither to those clients nor to Parliament.. :?
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By townleyc
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856310
kanga wrote:
NigelC wrote:Openreach are like many government monopolies hopeless.
..


AIUI, not a 'government monopoly' but a 'government-authorised private monopoly', having being spawned by BT and so ultimately from privatisation of GPO Telecomms. It could be argued that the management of such 'enterprises' have little incentive not to be 'hopeless' from the customer POV, being now answerable neither to those clients nor to Parliament.. :?


Agreed, but there are huge restrictions on how OR deal with others. They cannot speak to BT in a way they must do with others, nor give BT Internet any advantage.

Overall I think it works fairly well - certainly better than a government controlled organisation would

KE
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856325
Out of interest .... When Openreach are FTTP provisioning an area (not FTTP on demand) what do they actually do? Do they provision the fibre all the way to my property as part of the provisioning, or terminate it somewhere else until I order a connection to the house? (I'm getting mildly excited as some notices from 'FTTP planning' have recently appeared on telegraph poles in the village)

Most of our village is ducts under the pavement (100mm??) with smaller ducts to each property (40mm??), with some of the older properties on overhead wires.

QUESTION: Can I do this in advance of Openreach arriving, and if so can I buy & pre-bury a suitable fibre wire? If so, what is the fibre called & where would I get it from?

When we got fibre to the church, Openreach were not at all keen at digging through the graveyard - so we agreed that we'd provide the ducting and they'd pull the fibre through. We put a 40mm (?) duct in, with two draw cords. Openreach then pulled their fibre through. Annoyingly they also removed the spare draw cord we'd provisioned in case of future need.

@Colonel Panic If there's not a draw cord the there already, I found that blowing some nylon string through with a leaf blower, and then using the string to pull through a more substantial string seems to do the trick.
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By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1856345
Our 'village' if you can call it that (1680 properties) is in the very early stages of getting FTTP via the DCMS Community Fibre Partnership scheme.

Basically every household that signed up for a voucher will get a completely free install - even if it means digging the driveway up etc. They've even been round to each property and asked where we want the fibre to terminate.

Anyone who did not sign up for a voucher, then subsequently asks for service will have to pay for the connection work at the normal rate - they are not automatically provisioning to properties that did not sign up for a voucher.
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By Mike Tango
#1856364
rikur_ wrote:Out of interest .... When Openreach are FTTP provisioning an area (not FTTP on demand) what do they actually do? Do they provision the fibre all the way to my property as part of the provisioning, or terminate it somewhere else until I order a connection to the house? (I'm getting mildly excited as some notices from 'FTTP planning' have recently appeared on telegraph poles in the village)


Based on my estate, they run the fibre cables through the existing phone network ducting under pavements and the like, but don’t actually run anything from there to any properties until any individual house orders FTTP.

When FTTP is available, you can check here as and when that may be…

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

…it should tell you what stage install it’s expected to be from newly laid cable to property…

0 stage install: if an Optical Network Termination unit or ONT already exists at your premises, it's very quick to get connected. We can remotely activate a port on the ONT and the rest is generally self-installation. The average connection time is between 1 and 3 working days.

1 stage install: this is when the fibre cable termination is quite close to your premises. The average connection times are between 9 and 18 working days (subject to engineer availability). You'll need to be at the premises to get this connected, as the engineer will need to drill through your wall to install an ONT.

2 stage install: this is when the fibre cable termination may not be close to your premises. This will take longer to install and we may need to complete a survey, as well as any external work. Because of this, the installation may be delayed*, incur excess construction charges** or be deemed infeasible. The average connection times are between 20 and 35 working days (subject to engineer availability). The engineer will complete any external work to bring the cable termination close to your premises, typically 5-10 days before installing equipment at your premises.
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