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[rivageeza]

Hi,

I've recently realised something new has appeared on the poles in my street and I wondered if anyone could identify what it is and who would of installed it? There seems to be several Infrastructure providers working in the city of Lincoln at present, is it possible to identify whether it's an openreach/cityfibre/spring fibre box from this picture I've hopefully attached correctly?

Many thanks!

[meritez]

Hi,

Looks like a Openreach CBT.

[burakkucat]

Yes, it most definitely has something to do with FTTP. It is an Openreach 12-port Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT).

[rivageeza]

Ah that's fantastic thanks everyone.

Finally there is hope.

[Black Sheep]

I can tell you many things about that particular Openreach CBT from its unique ID - such as its location (address), the Head End mapping, the SASA it is on, when it was surveyed, when the estimates were created, what FTTP programme built it, the topology, costings ....... and much, much more ...... but the one thing you need to know, I can't find as it's not local to my area  .

Take solace in the fact that if the CBT's are installed, barring an unforseen issue, your PON should be getting ready to be commissioned imminently, ergo making it available to the ISP's. Add another couple of weeks or so on top of that, for it to become available to Joe Public.

Impossible to give a definite date, but you are almost at the end of the journey  .
 

[burakkucat]

"CBZEO VEG"

So much information is encoded in two simple runic inscriptions. It appears to be the Openreach equivalent of "What Three Words"! 

[Black Sheep]

"CBZEO VEG"

So much information is encoded in two simple runic inscriptions. It appears to be the Openreach equivalent of "What Three Words"! 

Ha ha - the CBT ID's are actually one 8-letter inscription, it's just the way it's been painted on in this instance.

However, as mooted, the ID can then be searched on many and varied systems for information. Alas, not the local build managers glide-path of delivery, though 

[rivageeza]

I would be super interested about anything you can tell me about this, I have obsessively been checking for news of FTTP for the past 5 years so you can imagine my delight when I saw that on the pole. I've not been this excited since moving from dial-up to 512k ADSL. It's going to open up so many possibilities.

[Black Sheep]

I would be super interested about anything you can tell me about this, I have obsessively been checking for news of FTTP for the past 5 years so you can imagine my delight when I saw that on the pole. I've not been this excited since moving from dial-up to 512k ADSL. It's going to open up so many possibilities.

As pointed out above rivageeza .... it would appear you are almost at the end of the FTTP journey (in your locality), regarding the OR infrastructure.
The bit I wouldn't be aware of, was the local managers delivery plan ... ie: when your particular PON (which has 85 premises within it, or 85THP as we call it) will be commissioned.

But, believe me when I say he/she would not waster valuable resource on cabling a PON (locating the CBT's as in your picture) without getting their reward from it. By reward, I mean that the delivery managers have 'x' amount of THP to deliver on a weekly basis, so if resource has been given to cable the PON, then I would expect the splicing/testing/LMTP/commissioning to follow shortly.

As with all things civils, there could be a swerve-ball comes to hit you, by that I mean your PON could be daisy-chained off another PON ... or another 2 PON's etc etc .... and with the best will in the world, we do get the odd instances off reactive civils being required in order to get light to all the daisy-chained PON's. PIA can be a nuisance, as they will nick OR's pre-roped lengths for their own services often leaving no duct capacity, resulting in expensive and time-consuming duct overlay requirements.
So, whilst the build manager is busy planning ahead and deploying his resources as he sees fit in order to capture the THP, they sometimes do get the odd hiccup.

However, I'm giving you worse case scenario's. The vast majority of the time PON builds go as expected and once commissioned it's over to the ISP's to give you a good deal. Others on here will give you a far better understanding of that side of things, as alas, I don't have FTTP where I live yet and am not in-scope to for a good while. 

[rivageeza]

Thanks Black Sheep for taking the time to respond and provide your input, it's makes good reading.

A few poles down from me I can see some cabling in a roll hanging down from the poll so I'm not sure if this has all been connected into the ducting yet.

There are some entries in bidb.uk which state openreach are due to clear blockages in the near future, as of right now I don't believe they've blown the fibre down the ducting on my street.

For now all I can do is hope and keep checking the checkers 

[tickmike]

It was about a year from blue rope being pulled into the ducts, then pulled the fibre cable in (They do not blow fibre in ducts) our lane has 36 fibres in one sheath cable, but more than one cable used.
After the CBT's mounted on poles and in manholes (I have my own 4 way CBT in the manhole for my house )    then it was about 5 weeks till going live.
I was on ADSL2 at 3Mbps down 0.8Mbps up 

So I do not think yours will be long to wait.

[rivageeza]

Well it's been just over a month and sadly there has been no progress as far as I can tell from openreach.

There is a roll of cable hanging down the pole which has been there since I took the photos, a couple of weeks ago a team of civil engineers came to build a small underground dig from the pole to the chamber and they told me openreach were going to come down after they had finished to connect it all up but sadly that hasn't happened.

Everytime I come home from work I'm looking out for that reel of fibre to be gone lol.

Interestingly, since openreach put their CBT's up it seems to of generated a bit of interest from a couple of altnets.
One evening at around 10pm, I was watching TV and I saw my curtains lit up orange. I looked outside and there were engineers up on the polls. Naturally I went out to speak to them, only to find it was Spring Fibre, who said it's easier for them to install late in the evening as it's quiet.
Unfortunately I've not been able to find much out about Spring Fibre, according to their website they appear to be an infrastructure provider, but there is no other detail than that.

Then today, according to bidb.uk there is works planned by Fibre Me Ltd in the next few weeks. From what I can tell, these are now known as Upp Broadband.

And finally, cityfibre has gone from saying "Thanks for your interest, we haven't planned your area at the moment" to just "Thanks for your interest". bidb.uk now states cityfibre is planned.

I just hope the Altnet's haven't come along and taken up all the duct space and stopped openreach from completing the deployment, it's almost like they saw openreach readying the deployment and have come along and put a stop to it.

[Black Sheep]

I just hope the Altnet's haven't come along and taken up all the duct space and stopped openreach from completing the deployment, it's almost like they saw openreach readying the deployment and have come along and put a stop to it.

he scourge of OR's roll-out plans, is PIA.

If there's PIA presence, OR try and cable as they rod & rope sections, but it's not practical to do so on many occasions.
There is supposed to be an agreement that if the rope is tagged, dated and labelled as 'OR rope for etc etc', that the PIA mob won't take it. Have a guess what actually happens.

TBH, if I were a Alt-Net I'd do what some of them do and hide behind lamposts watching and waiting for the costly civils works to be done, then sidle up under the cover of darkness to put their own sub-duct in.
But it's this practice that then puts OR back as capacity is then an issue and more costly overlay civils have to be planned, permitted and carried out.

I'll leave it there, as I am almost smashing my keyboard I'm hitting the keys with such force. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Presumably OR pay for the civils either way (if an alt-net wants in and its full) and its just the delay that is the issue if an alt-net snags the space first?

Granted that delay is a lot of potential money lost as the alt-net steals OR customers, possibly on long contracts.

Of course that does have to be offset on the fact depending on the age of the ducting, the tax payer paid for it to be laid in the first place.  So this is a bit of pay back for stealing our property in the first place. 

[XGS_Is_On]

TBH, if I were a Alt-Net I'd do what some of them do and hide behind lamposts watching and waiting for the costly civils works to be done, then sidle up under the cover of darkness to put their own sub-duct in.
But it's this practice that then puts OR back as capacity is then an issue and more costly overlay civils have to be planned, permitted and carried out.

That's business. Perhaps if Openreach weren't obsessively overbuilding and trying to preempt altnets the moment they start planning areas and built elsewhere it wouldn't happen as often.

I know of at least two altnets that do exactly this. It's efficient use of capital.