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[stevebrass]

You need more draw-rope, mate.

I dunno. These amateurs!!

No - nice work!

[bogof]

You need more draw-rope, mate.

Hehe.  That was just me being stingy,  I didn't really want to cut it, that way I've got a longer bit in one piece next time I need to pull some cable around the place.

I dunno. These amateurs!!

No - nice work!

Thanks.  I'm only doing this bit myself as I didn't think it's fair for me to expect the OR guy to be fishing around trying to follow a route to suit me and my odd house, and I can see why they might not like to be drilling into areas where they can't be sure what is on the other side...  As it turns out it doesn't look like it would have been too much of an ask - though the rods with the magnet / chain made it much easier I'm sure, without them I'm sure it would have been much harder to get from one side to the other.

Anyway, it's all done now.  Just a matter of waiting for my nice new fibre to turn up...   Fingers crossed.

[bogof]

Got an email today from Zen confirming civils works required, which are scheduled to happen by 01/03/2021.  I replied and asked if this did happen whether there would be any chance to get the external / internal works brought forward at all.  I'm not expecting anything, but if you don't ask you don't get.  It will be killing me having everything in place except the last little bit of fibre!

[bogof]

So this happened today...  Judging by the size of the duct, I'm setting up Telehouse Norwich here...!   Glad it is in the flowerbed, hidden by the bushes...

Nice couple of guys with a huge Openreach branded flatbed did the work, they were in and out in a couple of hours.  Roped all the way into the chamber that has the CBT in so the following engineers should have a pretty easy time of it I think.

I'm going to ask Zen to see if there is any chance of getting the rest of the works pulled forward now that the civils work is done.  I'm sure it's in their interests to get me onto service and billing as soon as possible. Edit: answer was a no to that.  Oh well, it's going to seem an age now waiting for it to go live! 

[Ronski]

That's certainly a big duct for one fibre.

[bogof]

That's certainly a big duct for one fibre.

Does seem disproportionately big.  I measured it at 54mm which I understand is the standard OR duct size, though I see from the various developer guides there is a smaller 25/17 duct that could have been used for just FTTP.  At least this is nice and substantial and unlikely to meet an accident in the flowerbed.

I guess it will look a lot tidier once(if?) they fit a capping over it and then an external CSP above it, and then use my duct to enter the property.  We'll see how it ends up looking once all done.  It's not going to happen til the end of April now anyway.

[Black Sheep]

Bog-standard D54 is that.

It's not so much whats happening at 'this end' as what it's being attached to at the 'other end'. In other words in a lot of cases they will dig down to the existing D54 in the footway and then fit a swept tee to take the new duct it to the premises.

[Alex Atkin UK]

We'll see how it ends up looking once all done.  It's not going to happen til the end of April now anyway.

I'd expect it to be full of water by then.

[bogof]

Bog-standard D54 is that.

It's not so much whats happening at 'this end' as what it's being attached to at the 'other end'. In other words in a lot of cases they will dig down to the existing D54 in the footway and then fit a swept tee to take the new duct it to the premises.

That's exactly what they did here from what I can tell.  I wasn't able to snap a pic while they were working, and they'd already got the tee in place when I got home, but they'd dug down about a foot to get to the existing duct - which luckily was exactly where we'd hoped - and fitted a sweeping bend somehow over the top of the existing duct - I guess there is a way to do that (maybe they have a tee that splits in two, or has a slit up the back and clips over existing duct?)

Chap said it was a really nice job for them to get, just a little bit of digging in nice soft ground, and everything where they expected it to be.  It only took them a couple of minutes to get the pull rope in.

I'd expect it to be full of water by then.

Perhaps, though the guy said it really doesn't matter and I'm inclined to believe them.  The chambers built at either end is nothing like sealed - you can see dirt in the bottom of the chamber.  I guess I could nip out and put a cap of some sort on it, but the water is likely to just run to one end or the other (or perhaps accumulate if the duct bows in the middle).

He was more concerned about the possibility of mud getting into it, which was the reason it was left tall, he said the next engineer can cut it back a little if they need to.

[Black Sheep]

We get water-ingress frequently into our boxes and subsequently our ducts, especially after a constant downpour. Fibre COF won't rust.

[Alex Atkin UK]

No doubt, I saw the state of my E-side (aluminium) when they were re-crimping the whole bundle due to years of that.  Its literally so short now (it broke while they were working on it) they would have to choose a different pair to reconnect me if it went again.  Though odds are switch-off will happen before then, so the risk then will just be rogue backhoes.

[bogof]

Thankfully the (hopefully copper, no idea) cable here is in a good state from what it looks - all the wire goes into huge "thimbles" which appear well sealed up.  In any case, looks like I may not care for much longer about it!

[bogof]

Email today from Zen confirming that the civils have been completed on their systems and that they'd ask OR to see if they can bring any of the first / second stage works forward.

In other news, FTTP on poles has been appearing in some adjacent areas where poles are serving phone lines instead of underground (just at the end of our road).  I was surprised how much is served from one pole.  There are no less than 28 ports at the top of one of the poles.  They've even got some kind of bracket that two 12 port CBTs are mounted to, stood off the pole. 

[bogof]

Got email from Zen today, saying they've been able to pull forward the internal installation date to 14/4/2021, which is 3 weeks sooner than originally planned.  No mention of an external visit now, and I still just have a raw 2" duct poking out of the soil with a pull rope in it, back to the CBT.  Maybe now it's deemed an easy enough job that it can be a single stage install. Hopefully capping off of the duct will be included to tidy up the outside a bit.   

Given the CBT is only about 6 metres away, I wonder if they'll go direct from inside the house to the CBT without a splice on the front of the house?

Do they tend to pull through another piece of pull rope in case of future need when the old one is pulled out?  Or is the assumption if required they'd just end up using the old cable to pull through?

Anyway, finger's crossed.

[burakkucat]

Do they tend to pull through another piece of pull rope in case of future need when the old one is pulled out?  Or is the assumption if required they'd just end up using the old cable to pull through?

The normal Openreach procedure is to keep things as simple as possible. Therefore I would expect that the old cable would be used to pull in a new cable . . . if that need should ever arise.