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Can I pick where the installation cable will go?

maff101

Member
Strongly considering switching to CF, however I have some specific needs regarding where the cable is going to enter my property. I need it to go through the first floor of my house (at the front), rather than the ground.

I've just asked the CF support chat and apparently it's entirely down to the engineers. Can I ask what experiences people have had? I get the impression from comments that the engineers are generally in a rush to get the job done and climbing up a ladder won't be an option.

Thanks,
Matthew
 
When I had my installation done (a couple of years back) the staff installers were excellent although my requirement was fairly easy and an obviously "sensible" solution.

If the fibre will be "flown" from a pole then they may be coming down already.

If you could provide a hole from outside to inside that would probably "encourage" the use of your preferred location.

As soon as the fibre enters your home they will want to mount a small (passive) box and a loop of fibre which is where the ONT (modem equivalent) plugs in (unlike Openreach there isn't an external fibre box on the wall).

They need to be able to get to the entry point as they make a fusion splice between the external fibre and the connector in their box.

It's well worth thinking carefully about this as it will be there for a while,

The internal fibre run (from box to ONT) is generally short but they should have different lengths of premade fibres if where the passive box goes isn't appropriate for active equipment.

I got both the box and ONT mounted in the cupboard under the stairs (next to the meters) which is nice and tidy and then extend from there on Ethernet to my router but I had been thinking about this for a while and got the required power and onward Ethernet connections installed in advance.
 
I would discuss cable routing & installation with the engineers when they arrive. If they do not agree then decline the installation and give them their marching orders.

All external fibre holes are drilled from the inside and engineers can climb up to one storey on a ladder. I don’t foresee see any issues with your request except for lazy engineers.
 
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The overwhelming factor for engineers to decide how to do an install is not whether they need to climb up on a ladder but what is the quickest installation possible in a reasonable safe way. Note this does not include “neat” nor “best for preventing cable damage” which is why people need to pay close attention to how the installation will be done and make sure they discuss and agree with engineer BEFORE they start to work.

So if you make the installation easier for them you will pretty much have a 100% chance of them following a pre-defined path. As such I strongly recommend doing your own conduit run and put a string on your conduit so the installer can simply pull the fibre into your house. Here is what I did for my CF installation and the engineers were extremely happy to use my conduit and house entry point as it seriously cut their installation time.

PS: CF installations are usually done from a pole so the cable drop will normally require using a ladder anyway. Where is your CF closest distribution point?

 
We had our CF install about a year ago. The fibre was fed from the pole to our first floor office at the front of the house. There were no problems doing this - they drilled a hole from inside the house to the outside, then fed the cable back the other way, leaving a service loop on the outside. It did involve the use of a ladder, but the installers were happy to oblige.
 
Strongly considering switching to CF, however I have some specific needs regarding where the cable is going to enter my property. I need it to go through the first floor of my house (at the front), rather than the ground.

I've just asked the CF support chat and apparently it's entirely down to the engineers. Can I ask what experiences people have had? I get the impression from comments that the engineers are generally in a rush to get the job done and climbing up a ladder won't be an option.

Thanks,
Matthew
They'll do it Matthew. In 99% of their installs the cable goes to the guttering of the property just under the roof. So they need to use a ladder to get up there and attach the anchor point.

So them going down half way instead of all the way to put the cable into the property is hardly anything to them :)
 
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