Openreach UK Could Replace ECI FTTC Broadband Cabinets with Huawei UPDATE

Long-time readers of ISPreview.co.uk will know that Openreach (BT) has had plenty of issues when trying to get network upgrades working at their optimal on their estate of ECI supplied street cabinets (particularly for hybrid fibre FTTC broadband ISP services). Now it looks like they might possibly be about to replace some of them.

The need for diversity in supply means that at present Openreach deploys Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (VDSL2) based Street Cabinets (of varying different physical sizes) via two primary suppliers (ECI and Huawei) and those support a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) network device, which can usually handle several Line Cards for managing broadband connections into homes and businesses.

However, their ECI estate has a long history of being problematic, which may have slowed the deployment of certain platform upgrades (e.g. G.INP) and caused various other issues. Unfortunately it would be a fairly expensive and complicated process to replace their ECI cabinets, particularly now that they’ve moved on with a different approach via G.fast and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology.

Nevertheless a little while back we began to hear rumours about some ECI cabinets being swapped out with new DSLAMs from Huawei, although the trail then went silent, until now (credits Jim). One of Openreach’s contractors, Magdalene, recently started looking to recruit a number of Night Migration Engineers to join their installation and commissioning team(s) working for customers across the UK. We suspect Thinkbroadband has heard the same music (like us they don’t seem to have had much luck getting a reply from Openreach’s PR team).

The interesting part stems from the job description, which requires new hires to work as part of a 2-man onsite team on a “nationwide nightshift DSLAM vendor swap out programme” for which the scope includes “powering down existing FTTC DSLAM’s and removing the equipment, reconfiguration of this equipment, and commissioning the new DSLAM before passing to the customer AOC for final checks.”

Sometimes it is necessary to replace cabinets or the kit inside but that is usually done as a like-for-like project and only when absolutely necessary, while this one specifically highlights the removal of ECI DSLAM equipment and the commissioning of Huawei’s MA5616 and MA5818 kit.

Job Requirements

Your duties and responsibilities will be:

* Setting up safe street working job sites in accordance with NRSWA
* Liaise with the on-night splicing lead and project team lead to give go/no-go decision based on site conditions
* Fitting of new battery string and PDU in equipment
* Fitting and testing of the transfer cables from the new Huawei DSLAM to the existing MDF
* Confirming fibre connectivity back to the headend
* Completing all HOP documentation in good time and in accordance with project requirements
* Completing the reverse logistics process to return all removed ECI equipment back to our stores
* Keeping accurate stores / spares / van stock inventories

Skills & Experience required:

* Commissioning and troubleshooting experience of Huawei MA5616 and MA5818 equipment
* Previous experience of ECI DSLAM commissioning and troubleshooting
* Experienced in the use of OPM and OTDR as well as handling and cleaning fibres
* The ability to reconfigure a cabinet including cable layout
* Past experience in battery string installation and copper pair testing
* Huawei OLT experience, primarily on MA5600 and MA5800
* Splicing experience (desirable)

Granted the contractor does work with other UK telecoms operators but the details above are specific enough that they seem to almost certainly point toward Openreach’s network. However at this stage we aren’t sure quite why, given the current focus on G.fast and FTTP, they would make such an expensive change unless there were other benefits to be had or this is a targeted upgrade (i.e. not all ECIs being replaced); possibly a combination.

On that point we note that the Huawei MA5818 equipment is fairly capable, including support for G.fast, VDSL and 10G PON. The 5616 and 5818 are both fairly small units and so may point to use on small or medium sized cabinets, although the extra capability they bring suggests a potentially more centralised approach for both old and new broadband services. Interesting stuff indeed.

We had hoped to post this on Friday but wanted to give Openreach a chance to comment. Sadly several attempts to make contact and request a comment have been met with complete silence.

UPDATE 5th July 2019

After a fair old wait Openreach has finally informed us of the following: “We’re constantly working on ways to upgrade and extend our network but we have no immediate plans to swap out fibre cabinets on any significant scale.” Reading between the lines they’re not saying no and defining significant scale in a network that servers tens of millions of lines is an interesting question.

We therefore lean more toward the targeted replacement hypothesis (e.g. strategically replacing ECI with Huawei as the cabinets / kit reach their end-of-life or where it makes sense to do so for other reasons).