FTTP, how is it being delivered these days ?

[SimonH2]

I'm replacing soffits and fascias, so have the chance to put a bit of conduit from the soffit into the loft. Planning ahead eventually we'll have a fibre service instead of the current copper - eventually being the operative word in our case as our exchange is merely down for "some time in the future".

Videos/photos, including some stuff on here, suggests that the fibre is spliced outside. But I thought BT OR were going (for the mass FTTP rollout) to connectorised dropwires that just plugged into a splitter/mux at the top of the pole, and the NTE at the customer end - hence no need for on-site splicing.
Does anyone know what the reality is ? Perhaps there's pre-made cables with a connector on one end for the pole top, and spliced at the customer end ?

Also, if they are going to continue splicing, are there restrictions on where the splice box can be ? I don't want to have a dropwire down the full height of the house, and then another one going back up again if they refuse to splice up near the soffit where the flying cable attaches

 

[Diver Fred]

AFAIK there is always a splice at your premises. The OverHead fibre has a reinforced sheath (and probably a suspension steel wire); the internal fibre has a much slimmer sheath.
You may be able to persuade the OR chaps to place the splice in your loft.

 

[sparkymarka]

Plus BT WONT go into a loft ….even if you offer to go up and pull the cable in for them …..jobs worth …dot com

 

[Sureitsoff?]

OR wont splice in the loft. they splice outside so that if the cable outside is damaged it can be replaced without an engineer needing to enter the house. usually the cable after the splice goes through the wall behind the joint box but they might run it back up the wall and into the loft using your conduit. where do you intend the fibre cable to end up? if the conduit runs all the way to the end point where you want the ONT to be then putting a draw rope in will help the engineers to help you get it to where you want it.
FYI i was an early adopter of FTTP and i dont have a splice outside as they did indeed use different methods then. i put a duct under the lawn from pole to house and conduit up wall behind downpipe into the loft then down to an internal cupboard . OR were happy to feed the cable all the way through my ducting/conduit. if you try to make their job easier they will like you for it. Just make sure you get OR to do the job and not a contractor.

 

[SimonH2]

OK, I must have misunderstood whatever it was I read - wherever it was

Everything I've read lately says that there's a pre-terminated (one end) fibre used from inside to the splice point - and this is a very flexible (by fibre cable standards) type. In a different thread somewhere, someone pointed to OR documents for developers and it talks about leaving something like a meter of it coiled up in a standard double back box (and covered with a blank plate to protect it from the trades ).

I can understand them not going in lofts, I believe Sky are the same. Lots of hazards, and I guess it's too much on-site risk assessment to differentiate between a fully boarded loft and trying not to fall between exposed joists.

I'll stick a bit of standard conduit in. I was just concerned that if they had a cable with a connector on it (i.e. no splice box) that the connector wouldn't fit up and round the bend it'll have.

 

[RandomGrinch]

and it talks about leaving something like a meter of it coiled up in a standard double back box (and covered with a blank plate to protect it from the trades ).

I knew there was a recent post about fibre, but it was over on 'electrics' -

How to Move internet fibre broadband?

I would like to relocate my fibre broadband from the 1st floor to a room in my loft There is a grey box outside. Inside of the grey box, two cable are joined together (pic 1) 1. Can anyone explain how the two cables are joined together? One of the black cable from the grey box comes into my...

www.diynot.com

The first picture, shows the wound-up spool within the box.

AHH, but just realised you contributed to the thread, so you probably remember it too!

 

[SimonH2]

Just for a bit of completeness, there were a couple of BTOR engineers next door - working outside by cutting and then joining the cable because our neighbours were out. Anyway, I asked a few questions and gleaned some tidbits of knowledge that may be useful to someone.
• Firstly, an external splice point needs to be at ground level - as they put it, so the tech doing the splice can safely sit with the kit to do it.
• But you can have an internal splice - which you have to explicitly ask for.
From a bit of searching, it seems that not every installation tech knows about internal splices, and they don't always have the internal box in their van. For me, it means I can use the existing entry, and have the splice point put where the master socket is now (out of sight in a cupboard, and where I already have a Cat5e cable from) - instead of running the drop wire down the full height of the house, and then have to get the internal cable to where it's useful (i.e. not anywhere near where the splice point would be !).