Drop cables and FTTP

[crell]

Hi, our village is currently being cabled up by a subcontractor for Openreach. Most of The poles now have a mix of what I beleive are fibre splitters and copper splitters, but not all.

In order to receive FTTP (rather than FTTP OD) does the closest pole to a property have to have the kit installed or is it normal to run from the nearest pole with the Fibre equipment, via the closest pole to the property? If so, is there any distance restriction and does it affect the install price?

Many thanks. Trying to work out if people will be left out of the service for those who's closest pole doesn't have the fibre kit.

 

[Mark.J]

Good question, I'm not 100% sure about the precise distance restrictions involved but there are limits due to the impact of gravity and wind etc., which must be considered.

I believe that FTTP carrying telegraph poles have a span length (distance between two poles) of around 68 metres. Plus I think that the Connectorised Block Terminals can only be up to a maximum of 150 metres away from a property.

Strictly speaking Openreach will aim to position poles so that they can reach the most premises and will then hang out the cable from the most viable ones. Technically they should be able to pass a cable from one DP on a pole over additional poles before hanging it to your property but I can't find a clear answer. Must admit I haven't thought about this specific issue.

 

[crell]

Thanks Mark,
Most of the poles are existing BT poles that now have the new fibre kit. I'm hoping that we're not going to end up in an awful situation of some properties being served and others not.

In my own case I have a pole outside the property - about 8 m away. It currently services my home as well as 6 other properties (directly and indirectly via further poles). This is ~25m from the nearest fibre pole. The bit I'm trying to establish is whether this setup is going to exclude us or whether this is just normal practice? I know there aren't too many people with FTTP yet but was hoping someone may have first hand experience who could provide a "don't worry, that's normal" confirmation.

Photos of the nearest pole with fibre kit on the attached link along with a quick sketch of the layout

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AiktC5ruFMlwmjGehLLOIMxM6teQ

 

[Mark.J]

By the looks of it you should be easy to reach. Have you tried asking the local broadband programme? I'm not sure which county you live in but every one tends to have a BDUK linked broadband project and site. If you ask via that site then you can normally get an answer on whether or not you're included in the plan.

 

[crell]

I believe this is a "pure" Openreach commercial project rather than anything from "Digital Derbyshire" (which hasn't been useful or effective in our Village's case). Thanks for the help.

 

[Glovepup]

I believe this is a "pure" Openreach commercial project rather than anything from "Digital Derbyshire" (which hasn't been useful or effective in our Village's case). Thanks for the help.

Still no harm in contacting your local council, mine were really helpful.