New FTTP Connection

[Mr Blobby]

What do I need to do to plan for the future FTTP line coming into the house?  Not had FTTP before and know nothing about how this is installed.

 

We are currently finalising the service entries into the slab so want to make sure this is all planned in good time.  Too early to go to a supplier I guess, so do I contact openreach now?

 

In terms of installation, I would rather the openreach fibre enters through the slab than the wall if possible, is that the right way to go? 

Is a connection box installed on the outside of the house or does the cable run straight underground into the house?

It would be nice to have the cable coming into the rear of the house, about 45 meters from the front boundary.  Are openreach ok with that sort of distance or do they have distance limits like electricity DNOs?

 

Firmus are knocking on doors in the neighborhood and installing FTTP free of charge.  The openreach site says £2000 max fee.  Obviously free is better.

 

What do I need to do?

 

 

[Susie]

Contact Openreach they have been very helpful with me.

I contacted them early. We are digging the trench next week for water, electric and Openreach.

this is what they are providing for free.

 100271 x 90m:30 lengths of duct 56

 094929 x 2: .Bend duct 56A

 090126 x 1: .Bend duct 56 house end

095002 x 3: .Bend duct 56B

095096 x 1: .Connector bend 4

095037 x 2: .Joint box 26

075874 x 2: .Frame and cover 102C

054822 x 100m.5/0.5 PET cable

041304 x 1: .Draw rope bag 250m

071987 x 1: .Cover 101A

072180 x 3: .Capping 25

 

Susan's builders will install our duct and cable from new

house to EL pole   Xxxxx. Installer to erect two spans of

drop wire back to DP 8. EL pole  xxxxx will require a license.

DP 8 will require a pair divert.

 

they have a guide book at

https://www.openreach.com/building-developers-and-projects/fibre-for-developers/guides-and-handbooks

similar with electric if I collect from depot. 

we getting temporary site electric so will have tail ends of water pipe and pull ropes tied up for about a year we may get the new fibre installed by the time we finish the build 2 years off minimum. 
 

[BadgerBadger]

Definitely contact openreach at the beginning of your project.  They sent a surveyor to have a look, who gave lots of advice on where the duct could be brought up and how it would route into the chamber, and then provided the required ducts - all totally free.

 

Once ducts are in and we're close to completion, chosen supplier will simply pull connection through.

Edited February 3, 2023 by BadgerBadger

[Mr Blobby]

Thank you for the advice.

 

Will contact open reach through their developer portal.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Mr Blobby
My stupidity

[Andehh]

Just jumping on this thread, I tried the developer portal myself but it asks for a company that is registered with them?

 

I dont want to use my builders firm without his approval, but I would prefer to start this earlier then later.

 

Any advice on how best to contact them other then their generic contact us page? 

[Susie]

This is the telephone number from my email from them. 
0800 0328660

 

[Canski]

I just arrived at site this morning to a pleasant surprise. Open reach have installed a new joint box exactly where I would have wanted it. I only enquired regarding cost of installation to the site. There is a God !

[Mr Blobby]

On 06/02/2023 at 07:56, Andehh said:

Just jumping on this thread, I tried the developer portal myself but it asks for a company that is registered with them?

 

I dont want to use my builders firm without his approval, but I would prefer to start this earlier then later.

 

Any advice on how best to contact them other then their generic contact us page? 

 

Its not obvious or intuitive, but there is a self-build option on the openreach developer site when registering for an account.

 

Not that it does any good though.  I applied for access on the 7th Feb.  Having heard nothing I raised a query on the 13th.  There is supposed to be a 48 hour reponse time to queries.  Still heard nothing so have escalated it today.  Over two weeks and still no access allowed to register the site on their portal. 

 

Are openreach always this useless? Anything else I can do to move this forward?  Shall I just go to Fibrus instead?

 

[Mr Blobby]

Openreach have still not set up my account on the developer portal. 

 

Builder tells me openreach don't allow the the cable up through conduit in the slab, which is my preference.  He says it has to go through the wall.  Which seems a bit shit. 

 

I'm sure I read on here somewehre that full fibre connection can now come straight in to the house without an ugly box outside.  Is this true?  Can I run the fibre cable in through conduit in through the floor?

 

 

[ProDave]

I seem to recall the guidance for even a wired cable is up the wall to a junction box then in through the wall.  I ignored that and ran the cable they supplied through conduit up through the slab and up into the house where I wanted it, and the engineer that came to connect it did not complain at all.

[Mr Blobby]

18 hours ago, ProDave said:

I seem to recall the guidance for even a wired cable is up the wall to a junction box then in through the wall.  I ignored that and ran the cable they supplied through conduit up through the slab and up into the house where I wanted it, and the engineer that came to connect it did not complain at all.

 

That is good news.  Did Openreach connect to your conduit at the boundary? 

 

Openreach finally phoned me yesterday after six weeks of trying to register on their devloper Portal.

 

The good news is I registered the site on the portal OK.

The plot is in an urban area with houses either side connected to fibre. We demolished the old house that had a phone connection.

Fibre to the premises is showing as available at the address on BT/sky etc websites. 

 

Openreach are quoting £3,840 to put in a fibre connection.  WTF?

 

What do I do now?  I guess I can't just lay conduit in the ground as I will need to agree with openreach where the fibre will cross the boundary?

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Mr Blobby

[Susie]

10 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

 

 

Openreach are quoting £3,840 to put in a fibre connection.  WTF?

 

What do I do now?  I guess I can't just lay conduit in the ground as I will need to agree with openreach where the fibre will cross the boundary?

 

 

Openreach have been great for me. Is that price when they dig the trench. 
I think there is an allowance for self builds of apx £2,500. If it costs less than this you don’t pay. If your neighbours have it then unless the local capacity is already full I’m not sure what they are charging for.
We are currently digging our trench for water, site electric and Openreach. 
it took a few deliveries as they haven’t had everything in stock but we have been given free £0 all the conduit, box for in trench, cable covers for at the pole and at the house, 500m of pull cord (enough for the electric as well), and over 200m of cable. We’re self laying from the pole but they have to run 30m from one pole to an electric pole and they organise the wayleave. 
I do feel I have had great service of them so far, local contact and mobile number to keep in touch with deliveries and progress.  They know we’re just preparing and will not move in and connect for a few years we have joked that the cable will probably be out of date by the time I get connected. 

To be fair Nation Grid have been great as well so may be it depends on location. 
I would definitely ask what the cost if for. 

 

[Mr Blobby]

So openreach email me today to tell me that my site registration, that took me six weeks and numerous phone calls to complete, has been rejected. 

The openreach developer portal does not support sites in Northern Ireland.  If only they had a decent website with some guidance 🤔

 

So what was the 3.5k quote all about then?

 

For those of us building in Northern Ireland the place to register sites for a new fibre connection is...

https://www.openreach.com/building-developers-and-projects/fibre-for-developers/registering-your-site/sites-in-northern-ireland

 

 

[Mr Blobby]

I finally get to speak to a local openreach guy whos coming out to look at the site tomorrow. 

It looks like fibre from the pole is free, fibre underground means they need to dig a trench that will cost a couple of thousand. 

Is it worth paying for the underground connection or do I get the free option from a pole and a wire to the house?

[Canski]

I must be having some luck for a change. Open reach installed a junction box a few weeks ago without even notifying me, right where I would have wanted it. Then today without any input from me are on the phone offering me ducting and drawings for installation ( he did say that the ducting had to end outside the houses )he also offered me all the assistance I need and his mobile number. Free installation as well. 

[Susie]

7 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

I finally get to speak to a local openreach guy whos coming out to look at the site tomorrow. 

It looks like fibre from the pole is free, fibre underground means they need to dig a trench that will cost a couple of thousand. 

Is it worth paying for the underground connection or do I get the free option from a pole and a wire to the house?

Could you lay the cable yourself in the ground?

If your in a windy spot I could see advantage to it being underground.  Do you mind seeing the cable?
ours is going in the ground because our nearest pole is 100m away at the end of our drive and the trench is open for water and electric. 
I have been told if we take a long time to complete the build then the cable might be upgraded by the time we’re ready to connect and the old cable will pull the new cable through. 
 

[Mr Blobby]

23 minutes ago, Susie said:

Could you lay the cable yourself in the ground?

If your in a windy spot I could see advantage to it being underground.  Do you mind seeing the cable?
 

 

Its the cable laying outside the boundary that's the issue.  The pole is either across the road or 80 metres along the pavement and under next door neighbours driveway. 

I did think that a wire hung from the pole would be more succeptible to failing in the wind but I guess that the cable underground would come down from a pole supplied with aerial cables anyhow.

So maybe coming from a pole does not present reliability issues.  The visuals remain of a wire from a pole but not a big deal.  I'll put some conduit in the agreed place to pull the wire through.

 

I did phone Fibrus, who are another fibre infrastucture provider here but they won't even discuss installation until youve ordered the fibre connection.  And they suggested on the phine it would be from poles, which is odd as that would be from the openreach pole.

 

I'm meeting the openreach guy on site tomorrow to chat through the options.  

 

 

[Susie]

Good luck tomorrow. 
if like you say the visuals aren’t a deal breaker then I agree the chances of your cable blowing down are only a small fraction comparable to its full length above ground. 
Closing a road or digging up your neighbors are probably not worth it. 
our power is overhead as well and I don’t consider that a problem if it was to fall the longest I have been without power is 12hrs in 6 years and we are very windy here.   A couple of times a year we get fly by checks on the whole village and surrounding infrastructure.   Could be because GCHQ is close by and they will probably read this now as a huge percentage of our UK internet is monitored down the road. 
 

[dpmiller]

On 09/03/2023 at 16:05, Mr Blobby said:

 

For those of us building in Northern Ireland the place to register sites for a new fibre connection is...

https://www.openreach.com/building-developers-and-projects/fibre-for-developers/registering-your-site/sites-in-northern-ireland

 

On a whim I filled that form in at the end of the week, and a blokey phoned today and will be calling tomorrow. Watch this space...

[Susie]

Things are moving quick for a few people I wonder if it’s the end of tax year and getting quotas in. 
goodluck @dpmiller hope they sort you out. 

[Mr Blobby]

Met with openreach chappie on site today and discussed options. 

 

(i) Overhead line from post other side of road.  This is free but cable would go through next doors overgrown tree at the corner of their garden that already hangs into our site. It would need to be cut and maintained.  Horrible leylandi thingy.

Cable would enter the loft at the gable end on the hidden-ish side of the house so not too bad. Would keep the router in the loft and cat6-e to the patch panel.

 

(ii) Openreach put a new pole in front of our house.  Free option that would avoid the tree but I don't really want a pole in fron t of the house because the houses next door would likely migrate to that pole and I'd have wires hanging all over the front lawn.

 

(iii) Underground from the pole across road.  £2,300 ish to include the 500 quid trafic management as they dig a groove in the road for the cable. 

 

 

Is it really worth 2 grand to hide the overhead cable?  What to do?

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Mr Blobby

[Kelvin]

Hide the cable for the reasons you state. Let’s assume you go down the pole outside your house route and over time other folk connect to this. How much will it bother you? If not at all then do that. If even a little bit then spend the dosh. 

[Mr Blobby]

34 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

Hide the cable for the reasons you state. Let’s assume you go down the pole outside your house route and over time other folk connect to this. How much will it bother you? If not at all then do that. If even a little bit then spend the dosh. 

 

New Pole outside front of the house on our side of road (option (ii)) is ruled out.  It would be a visible eye-sore and the neighbours would likely end up connecting to it.  And that really would p me off.

 

That leaves the other 2 options.  Either free overhead from the pole across road or pay to run under the road from same pole.

 

The free overhead option would run the suspended cable through the middle of the neighbours overgrown tree so is only feasible if he cuts his tree in half.  Its an ugly thing.  (the phone line from the house we demolished ran through middle of same overgrown tree)

Had a chat with neighbour and he seems to expect me to contribute towards the cutting of the tree on his land.  Tight git.  So not cost free if I am to maintain good relations.  No idea how much it costs to fix a tree.

 

Underground looking increasingly attractive.  Will be doing my neighbours a favour too if I pay to bring that fibre across the road to a new junction box on the pavement.

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Mr Blobby

[Kelvin]

You don’t want to be beholden to a neighbour about anything  

[Mr Blobby]

26 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

You don’t want to be beholden to a neighbour about anything  

 

Indeed.  That neighbour used to be my GP before he retired so he's loads of money and no reason to be a tight git with overgrown trees.  Especially when his overgorwn trees block the pole and hang over into my site.

 

I think I'll pay to go undergorund and then take a chain saw and cut a vertical line up the middle of his tree at my boundary.  Problem solved.