Thanks guys, I’m not challenging anything that’s been said, just curious to understand.
So what happens then, if a property developer comes along and builds another house, on the edge of an existing development served by FTTP? An option would obviously be to draw a single new fibre through all the ducts, all the way to the exchange. But I’d have expected a cheaper and easier option to be available, and it’s hard to amagine anything simpler than the old cabinets.
After all, pre-broadband, POTS, it could have been argued there was no technical need for cabinets as there was continuous copper all the way from subscriber to exchange. But for practical reasons, cabinets were of course used.
I’m not the only one confused by this. Found a 2017 parliamentary briefing paper no less (quite short) that spells it all out. Figure 2, page 5, illustrates the all-copper vs FTTC vs FTTP options and in each case, there is a sreet cabinet shown. But in the descriptive text, it seems to contradict the diagram...
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PB-0024/POST-PB-0024.pdfAnother option for fibre optic deployment involves running fibre optic cables from the exchange to the premises, without needing to go via a cabinet.