Full Fibre Install

[fitz1973]

I have just taken sky up on an offer for full fibre today , however i didnt realise the full scale of this and am now getting a bit worried about a few things

 They said an openreach engineer will install a new box outside and i dont need to be in

This worries me as we live in a 3 storey townhouse, and the living room is in the middle at the back of the house , and we have houses left and right of us , so where will they put this, i think there is a entrance point near the front door but this leads to a garage and our kitchen

Can this box be changed or will it have to be where they say it is

secondly if they do install it downstairs does the ont (i think its called) need to be close to this or can it be connected to any phone line of the house, ie the middle floor living room where my sky and router box currently are

And thirdly, i have an activation and engineer date of 11th march, will openreach come earlier and if they change the box outside will this interrupt my current broadband connection, this worries me most as i work from home so i cant be without internet for days?  or will my normal superfast broadband until then ?

Can anyone offer any advice at all on these issues , as now beginnng to regret it already

[Chrisee]

@fitz1973 it depends on whether the fibre feed will be run underground or from a pole. It is highly likely to be the same as the current phone linebut you can tell more accurately if you put your full address into the following checker and post the table and the first 3 lines of the notes in the forum after removing the reference to your address Openreach Checker

Overhead cables will normally be attached to the top front of thr property and run down the wall to a suitable point and terminated in the customer supply point (grey plastic box). This needs to be accessible by the engineer fitting the internal fibre service. If underground feedthen the CSP is fitted near ground level. 

The engineer should ask you where you want the ONT fitted and should try to do that for you on the front wall they wont be able to run long internal cables and the old copper phone wiring is redundant. The ONT requires power. They use a special fibre pigtail cable which plugs into the ONT is run through a hole they drill in the external wall which is sealed and run to the CSP where the end is cut and welded to the fibre from the street. It should be possible for the ONT to be on the first floor but it will be up to the engineer on the day. Sky will probably send you what thry call a "conversion kit" which is actually a short ethernet lead to connect your the hub. You can use a longer ethernet lead if you want.

The result of the checker will show if the install is planned to be one stage or more than one. Early stages are not by fixed appointments but if you are in the house they usually will make themselves known before doing any work.Your existing copper service should not be affected but occasionally things go wrong so you cannot be 100% certain it wont. If the checker above tells you the existing copper feed is run in a duct then on occasions the crew may use the copper cable to pull the fibre through. In most cases the crew are friendly and helpful so it is better to co-operate with them to get the best job. Being helpful yourself can often get you a bit more flexibility. 😉

One last point at some stage you will have to move over to fibre as the copper network is due to be decommissioned the vast majority of installs go smoothly or if they are delayed you still have the existing service and you get compensation. My own install was complex but was pretty painless apart from a few missed appointments.

[fitz1973]

Thank you, it's definitely underground, houses are about 20 yrs old and there are no phone mats on the estate at all.

It looks like it's connected next to the front door as there's already is something that looks like a grey duct coming up and into the house and there is a phone port near the door

But our houses just have. Garage toilet and kitchen downstairs, and living room is at the back of the house  on the second floor 

[TimmyBGood]

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@fitz1973 wrote:

secondly if they do install it downstairs does the ont (i think its called) need to be close to this or can it be connected to any phone line of the house, ie the middle floor living room where my sky and router box currently are

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Once an optical connection is in place at the address, all 'phone lines' become obsolete.  The Sky Hub connects to the ONT over ethernet cable, and internal extension sockets cease to function.

[Chrisee]

@fitz1973 you will need to talk to the engineer on the day in theory you can decline the installation at that point if you want at no cost. The phone cable coming via what sounds like a duct is a possible issue it will depend it the engineers can feed the new fibre feed through the same duct with the copper line in place. If they have to remove the cooper cable to run the fibre you maybecwithout a service for a few days. The che cker msy tell us more.

[fitz1973]

 

 This is shots from the checker 

[fitz1973]

 the grey duct is how I think the current line comes in

[TimmyBGood]

@fitz1973 

'2.5 inch plastic duct 56' as in the text below the table.

[Doc5907]

@fitz1973  it is likely the Openreach engineer will only want to fit the internal ONT on the ground floor at the front of your house. I'd recommend using a Cat 5e/6 Ethernet cable to extend placement of Sky Hub to where your living room is at back of your house for optimum wifi coverage.

I had exactly the same situation last year at my house whereby ont was fitted at front and used This cable and These to relocate my hub to the back. I did it myself in a few hours (same floor installation) but depending on your layout, you could use a local electrician/handyman.

[fitz1973]

May have to do something like that just living room on second floor so not sure how, definitely a handyman thing then haha

Starting to wish I hadn't decided to upgrade but by the sounds of it it's inevitable,  my main worry now is a loss of service as I work from home , install day is fine can take a leave day but if a few days then that's not gonna be good 

[Doc5907]

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@fitz1973 wrote:

May have to do something like that just living room on second floor so not sure how, definitely a handyman thing then haha

Starting to wish I hadn't decided to upgrade but by the sounds of it it's inevitable,  my main worry now is a loss of service as I work from home , install day is fine can take a leave day but if a few days then that's not gonna be good 

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@fitz1973  mine was same underground 2.5" plastic duct 56 as yours and there was no service loss during fibre installation so hopefully it's the same at yours and you don't have any broadband interruptions. If your neighbours have identical layouts and had fibre done it might be worth checking with them if there were any installation 'issues' as yours is likely to be reciprocated.

[fitz1973]

Just typical only other person in my estate has just ordered it haha, just gonna see what happens , although had a text and sounds like openreach and sky coming same day, does that sound correct?

[TimmyBGood]

@fitz1973 

That's certainly possible, although Openreach have been known to turn up in advance to do the outside work if they have spare capacity.

[fitz1973]

Well today the day and not gone to plan lol, openreach box outside last week no problem. The engineer has been today , and said due to the positioning of the incoming cable he has to drill near the door, which will then bang into the ont box , looked at putting it in garage, as it's a side on room but said prob going to cause issues with connectivity.

Said could go to second floor but as we have a porch it's alot of work, which he didn't seem keen on and said could poss drill further along door frame but would like break a brick and pop it out, which I don't really understand, had to leave it for now and said would reschedule, while we figure it out