FTTP installation query - first in street

[Bob+L]

hi,

A relatives 66mb superfast FTTC broadband with landline phone contract reaches the end of its 18 months term next month.  Openreach announced a fortnight ago FTTP is now available to order in their street.

The existing copper phone cable comes from a telephone pole on other side of the road.  We guess that may have to be taken down and replaced by a new fibre optic cable.

My relative could be the first household in the street to order FTTP.

My question is on day of installation, what if the Openreach engineer replaces the cable and discovers they cannot activate FTTP due to unforeseen issue.   I guess engineer just reports it as a 'fault'.....

Obviously, I guess they can't return to copper wired based phone and broadband services until FTTP problem is fixed?

If the outage is likely to last more than a few days, what does Sky do about it?

thanks in advance.

[Highlinder]

@Bob+L  There is normally external work done and a survey. You would need to get them to enter their details into the link below and read off the information it has about the FTTP WBC install process and are they also able to order FTTP through Sky as we have seen that it takes a bit of time for the database to be updated.

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

[Bob+L]

I forgot to add, they are currently with Sky and also wish to keep their phone number when upgrading to Sky FTTP.

[Highlinder]

@Bob+L  What does it say to them when they go to see what packages are available to them via the link below.

https://www.sky.com/broadband 

If it is not showing any of the ultrafast packages then it looks like Sky's database has yet to be updated for their street. All they can do is keep checking every so often till it does. When this happened to myself I had to wait around 6 weeks for the catch-up to happen.

[Bob+L]

hi,  

Sorry for not making it more clearer.   I am asking what if FTTP cannot be activated after any external work is successfully completed on day of installation?

eg. engineer discovers a technical problem perhaps further upstream on the openreach network serving this street, unrelated to the local installation, resulting in service outage when trying to switch from FTTC to FTTP.

eg. Does Sky offer a 4G hub with unlimited data and calls SIM, or is the customer left without services until the FTTP problem is fixed which could be days or weeks or months?

If a neighbour already had FTTP installed and working, we'd be less concerned about possible outage.

From the the link you kindly provided

FTTP install process:   1 Stage

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential OH Feed with no anticipated issues.

FTTP is available and a new ONT may be ordered.

The exchange is not in a current fibre priority programme

WLR is currently available at the exchange

SOADSL is not restricted at the exchange

[Bob+L]

replies getting out of sync  

fttp is available since openreach announced it two weeks ago

[Highlinder · Accepted solution]

@Bob+L  If they already have broadband with Sky this will not be switched off until the FTTP service goes live. All they would have to do is disconnect the rj-11 cable from the router as there will be a ethernet rj-45 going from the router to the ONT which is installed inside the property.

[Bob+L]

thank you for reply regarding the 'broadband'.

I thought it was standard practise by Openreach to remove the old copper cable from telephone poles when upgrading to FTTP.

So does that mean the Openreach will not remove the old copper cable coming from the telephone pole, or we can insist the old copper cable is not removed ?

What happens to the home telephone number?

Does the transfer to sky voip service occur after Sky FTTP is up and running, as I presume you can't have the same telephone number on both copper line and voip?

thanks in advance

[Highlinder]

@Bob+LThe number should transfer with the installation. Might find it takes a little bit of time. But this should be stated in the order when it happens. They are only upgrading there service and nothing on the phone side should change.

Get them to double-check when making the order.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Bob+L wrote:

I thought it was standard practise by Openreach to remove the old copper cable from telephone poles when upgrading to FTTP.

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No, with the current price of scrap copper that's not economically viable, and would make each FTTP installation take far longer.  They might choose to do so where individual poles are approaching their load limit though.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Bob+L wrote:

eg. Does Sky offer a 4G hub with unlimited data and calls SIM

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Sky does not do so: I believe BT Broadband does in some circumstances for services provided by them.

[simon194]

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@Highlinder wrote:

@Bob+LThe number should transfer with the installation. Might find it takes a little bit of time. But this should be stated in the order when it happens. They are only upgrading there service and nothing on the phone side should change.

Get them to double-check when making the order.

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The phone number transfers automatically but it can take a bit of time for the hub to connect to the VoIP server. It took about 20 minutes before the phone to start working when I switched to FTTP.

[lettice]

Having just upgraded last week from Sky Superfast 80/20 to Sky Ultrafast+;
The CST outside box was installed a week before the fttp install. The Openreach engineer took a fibre cable from the pole on the opposite side of the road to the new outside box (CST).
On install day, a Sky engineer came and installed an ONT inside the house and ran a cable through the wall from the outside CST box to the inside ONT box.

The ONT is connected by an etherent cable to your Sky router, plugs into one of the ethernet sockets marked as WAN on your Sky router. Sky will supply you with that ethernet cable, a cat5e cable, sent in the post. You can use your own cate 5e or cat 6 cable if you prefer if it needs a longer run.
The adsl line and landline was still active up to the point the Sky engineer scanned the ONT barcode and plugged in teh cables to it. That was the switchover.
The engineer asked that the router be rebooted, just repowered and to remove the landline phone cable from your master socket into the router and make sure the ethernet cable from the ONT was plugged into the route WAN ethernet port.

All four lights on the router camne on, speedtest were run by the engineer to test the fttp speed.
He mentioned the phone line could take a few hours for calls to come through, but only took about ten minutes. You could make external calls and hear a dialtone straight away.

The engineer said he would not remove the outside drop wires from outside wall to the pole for the replaced dsl line. But, I could remove all the older internal wires and redundant master socket as I wished. Other neighbours with recent installs have been told the same. 

[Bob+L]

Thank you for @lettice for your recent experience with upgrading to Sky FTTP, and also to others who replied too.

This has given us confidence to ordering upgrade to Sky FTTP without fear of an outage.

[Bob+L]

Just a final update.

Full fibre installation was booked for Monday 16th October.

Openreach (or subcontractor) unexpectedly turned up on Thursday 12th October without prior warning.  Fortunately, we were at home.  The engineer was tasked to install new fibre drop cable from the telephone pole on opposite side of the road.  He used the existing cable hook attached to the front of the house which serves the existing copper phone cable.

We did request if the new grey CSP box could be mounted about a 4 feet off the ground next to chimney stack due to the sloping driveway, but he ended up locating it about a foot off the ground.   We later learned this was to reduce risk of the fibre cable fusion splicer being accidentally dropped/damaged.

On Monday, a Sky engineer turned up to our surprise to install the ONT and the fibre cable from the CSP into the house.   After getting 3 green lights on the ONT, the engineer scanned the barcode on the ONT, and sky broadband was activated soon afterwards. 

We could make outgoing calls via the new voip service.  It was an hour later before we checked the phone again to confirm we could successfully receive incoming calls.

Both engineers said they do not remove the old copper phone cable.  The Sky engineer did say frequently turns up to install ONT only to discover the newly laid fibre cable wasn't working, so job 

However, five of our neighbours have also had Full fibre installed in the last few weeks too.   All of them have had the copper phone cable removed from the telephone pole.  The last 3 installations were carried out in  a single visit by subcontracted MJ Quinn engineers working for Openreach.   One of the neighbours (who is with BT)  told us they didn't specifically ask the engineer to remove the old copper cable.  The engineers removed the old copper cable and then hung the new fibre cable.