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[burakkucat]

The reason for me mentioning the location of various hardware items is that there is a separation limit, imposed by Openreach, which relates to the length of the fibre "pig-tail" that is provided to link the CSP and the ONT.

Do you happen to know what that is?

I've done some checking in my copies of various documents and it appears that I have misremembered.    A length of "EZ Bend" fibre is run from the CSP to the ONT's location. It is at that point that a fibre pig-tail is then attached to the "EZ Bend" fibre via a small, discrete, circular splicing point.

In other news spotted this just now. Thought I'd check roadworks.org on the off chance and BINGO....see attached

 

[ryan2390]

Good Evening All...I bring you good news and photographs! If you click the photos and head to the image hosting site where they are and click the magnifying glass you can see the hi res versions. No fancy DSLR here...just a bloke with an iPhone so excuse any blurring

I was out on Friday morning with my Grandfather and got a text saying workmen were digging up the village green so much to my Grandfather's annoyance I requested that I be taken straight home so I could photograph the process. I arrived to find that they had already come across the green and were finishing that portion of the laying.

This was the first leg they did from the chamber nearest the road and across the green:


Duct laid along the next leg (they installed a chamber at the end of this):


This is where the ducting shown above was going to be coming from by means of the trench on the right. Left trench is the one from the first picture:


They completed that stage of work on Saturday morning when they installed a new chamber on the green. It should be noted that they only thing they could not do was bore holes in the older cast concrete chambers and someone else is doing that although I don't know who. We also discussed on the Friday about how they were going to deal with the old bridge over the overflow from the pond. They were going to use a metal pipe however that didn't happen so you will see what they did later. For now though have two pictures of the bridge. The metal pipe is...no idea. My dad and I can't decide if it's a gas pipe or water pipe! The small white cable is believe it or not the armoured cable carrying our telephone line!



Yes I did get on the overflow ledge to take that first picture and yes I am barking mad because if I had slipped walking onto it I would have had a bath! For the anglers amongst us that little pond is cracking and we can fish it from the front garden.


------------------------------

The contractors did not return until today (18th) and promptly started work. Look...a hole in the ground.
(cue for a song that is!)


Making sure the hole was big enough for the chamber took longer than I thought it might but eventually they got it to fit:


They then proceeded to dig from the chamber hole across the drive and up between the drive and the pond. Unfortunately I was unable to get photos of the dig across the drive as I was indoors but I didn't miss the digging along the edge of the pond. They were very efficient as one was digging and the other was laying the duct in the trench.
Laying:


Digging(further along):


Various obstacles had to be negotiated including these awkward roots of a bush:


Eventually the duct had to negotiate the bridge over the overflow and although I was unable to get on the ledge this time due to inappropriate footwear I was able to get a decent shot of what they did. Note the armoured cable is still visible and the cable tie holding the duct in place:


Once this was cleared it was just a matter of reaching the new chamber they installed on Saturday morning before they did the last leg to the house. Believe it or not the amount of rubble they excavated is common around here:


The guys doing this all were great and I thought the least we could do was offer them something to eat so for lunch they got a bacon sandwich. Not quite sure if they just didn't know what to say and/or wondered if I was on something aha. I don't believe in having people round to do stuff and not look after them regardless if we're paying for the work or someone else is. Anyway they decided where to dig and got cracking.

Just after the chamber in the drive to the boundary hedge of the front garden:


Interesting method of getting the duct to go where it's wanted:


Trenches with and without ducts taken next to the front porch:




Finally the duct made it to the front of the house near to where the copper comes up and because it's so close to next door it means if she wants it then there is no more digging.



So all told two and a bit days for this to be done and now have to wait until the 29th of April for Openreach to bring the fibre to the wall and fit the consumer splice point. I hope this is adequately explained and that there are enough pictures showing what went where. I have some more I took if people want to see them and if needed I can go and photograph some more.

I will leave you with a panoramic shot I took of the green where you can see the route taken from the road, along the green and down to the house. It's a large file so will take a while to load if you have a slow connection like I do (for now!). If anyone needs a lower res version let me know and I will shrink it. I also apologise for the wavy, jittery picture as I was using the panorama feature on my iPhone which I've never really used before but I think it shows the lay of the land.



Thanks for reading this very long post and i hope it's as informative as I hope it is

[Black Sheep]

It is very informative and interesting to see how development is made over a few days. Thanks for the updates. 

[burakkucat]

Thank you for taking those photographs and providing the commentary.

So if I understand correctly, the main run of ducting is for all the properties on your side of the green and then individual runs of ducting will lead off to each property in turn?

[ryan2390]

It is very informative and interesting to see how development is made over a few days. Thanks for the updates. 

You're welcome. Writing that post took me over an hour. I had to sort through what I took and try and put them in the order in which they happened.

Thank you for taking those photographs and providing the commentary.

So if I understand correctly, the main run of ducting is for all the properties on your side of the green and then individual runs of ducting will lead off to each property in turn?

It's just to serve us and next door if they ever decide to go for it. There are three other properties served by the same route across the green. One will require it's own ducting and the other two will be able to share one. Indeed one of those two properties also has an order so we will see what happens there. It's hard to explain without maps and so on but I don't want to give too much away given this is a public place. If you want I can do you a map and send it to you via PM

What amazes me is for the most part there were only two blokes doing it and it only took just over two days!

[niemand]

BT's FTTP deployment decisions really are bizarre, although I guess this was BDUK and BT's ability to respond to taxpayer subsidies can't be underestimated.

Looks as though you're nearly done - good. Hope it's smooth from this point on.

[Ronski]

Great post Ryan, thanks for the update. It's not very deep, but that seems to be the way they do these things.

[niemand]

Great post Ryan, thanks for the update. It's not very deep, but that seems to be the way they do these things.

Absolutely. All the ducting VM have been laying is pretty shallow, too. Reduces possibility of hitting gas, electricity or water

There's more Openreach residential FTTP in your village, Ryan, than there is in the cities of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield and Wakefield combined.

Hope it's worth the really long wait after all that.

[S.Stephenson]

Great post Ryan, thanks for the update. It's not very deep, but that seems to be the way they do these things.

Absolutely. All the ducting VM have been laying is pretty shallow, too. Reduces possibility of hitting gas, electricity or water

There's more Openreach residential FTTP in your village, Ryan, than there is in the cities of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield and Wakefield combined.

Hope it's worth the really long wait after all that.

Wakefield isn't a place that would spring to mind for an FTTP rollout 

[ryan2390]

There is more FTTP in the area covered by the Capel exchange than anywhere else served by BT I should imagine. Looking at the poles alone it's nearly everywhere. Only one or two cabs that I know of are VDSL which sucks because Capel could have been a FTTH only exchange but nevermind!

It's worth noting this is a commercial rollout and not BDUK funded after Capel won a competition. Seen something this morning from a few years ago suggesting some 1800 properties off Capel would be getting FTTP. Anyway the duct is in now so just have to rely on Openreach to do their bit.

As for the long wait it's been two years badgering various people including Joe Garner and one of the BDUK directors to find out what and when. If Openreach stick to their date of 5th of May for service activation then it will have been 6 months since order and a total of two and a half years since I decided to do something about it. We've only been living here four years...lol.

I admit to being cynical and wondering if we will get the 330/20 service we're going to be paying for but ho hum time will only tell.

I take you all would like pictures off the CSP fitting and ONT fitting?

[burakkucat]

I take you all would like pictures off the CSP fitting and ONT fitting?

Yes please. Most definitely!

I predict that you will be provided with an Openreach branded Huawei EchoLife HG8240 GPON Terminal, along with a BBU that takes four AA sized Ni-MH cells.

[ryan2390]

I take you all would like pictures off the CSP fitting and ONT fitting?

Yes please. Most definitely!

I predict that you will be provided with an Openreach branded Huawei EchoLife HG8240 GPON Terminal, along with a BBU that takes four AA sized Ni-MH cells.

Well I assume it'll be like the others I have seen installed. Will be good to get it going. Just need to find a new router and we will be well on our way!

[Dray]

Will BT give you a Homehub 5 ?

[niemand]

There is more FTTP in the area covered by the Capel exchange than anywhere else served by BT I should imagine. Looking at the poles alone it's nearly everywhere. Only one or two cabs that I know of are VDSL which sucks because Capel could have been a FTTH only exchange but nevermind!

It's worth noting this is a commercial rollout and not BDUK funded after Capel won a competition. Seen something this morning from a few years ago suggesting some 1800 properties off Capel would be getting FTTP. Anyway the duct is in now so just have to rely on Openreach to do their bit.

We won a competition here, too. The competition to convince BT there were more than 105 houses connected to the cabinet. 

[Black Sheep]

Lighten up Ignition mate ....... I can picture you wandering the streets shouting, "Bring out your dead". LOL.