Internal connection

[#1]

I'm due for a full fibre installation. There will be a distance of about 3 metres from where the hole is in my external wall ( I already have a hole there for my part fibre) to where the ONT will ideally be situated - I have a Master Socket 5c there now. When the Master Socket 5c was installed the engineer ran a cable along the top of my skirting board, around a door frame and along more skirting board. It is white like the paintwork but still looks unsightly. Can this connection be run under a carpet?

[#2]

Possibly, is it a fully fitted carpet?  Who will lift and refit the carpet?  The cable cannot be laid loose under an area people walk over as it is likely  it will chafe.

The decision will rest with the engineer on installation day.

[#3]

I am having a new carpet fitted in that room shortly so could lift the edge of the carpet up revealing the floorboards and base of the skirting board so the cable could perhaps be stapled in place there and the carpet then laid over it.

[#4]

@nigelg12 

You won't know until the day of install - a good engineer will try to work with you if it's possible. However, I consider it unlikly - fibre optic cable is far more fragile than copper.

The internal ONT doesn't have to go where the MS is - there is limited leeway as to where it's located. For example could it go on the wall where the cable comes in. You could also re-think your internal network - could another room be used of the ONT.

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/full-fibre-broadband-installation-checklist

Brian

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to staple the indoor fibre connection from the external entry point to the ONT. That part is optical fibre, and is pre-terminated with the SC fibre connection (green plug, not Ethernet). Stapling it will crimp it — probably not breaking it but risking creating micro-fractures in the glass which will fail completely within weeks, months, or even years.

Your installer engineer will try hard to get your ONT very close to the entry point from the outside wall and handy for a power point. The installer will be keen to keep the ONT itself on the outside wall and will resist putting the white indoor pre-terminated fibre anywhere which is “traffic”.

From the ONT, it is a normal Ethernet connection from there to your PlusNet hub two or your own router-WiFi box, and that Ethernet can be routed around doors and positioned somewhere convenient for you — perhaps where your NTE5 / master socket box was, perhaps in a different room if you like.

[#6]

@nigelg12 

The router connects via ethernet cable so can go anywhere you're happy to run said cable.

If you want / are happy to run cable under a fitted carpet then conside putting the ONT beside the entry point (assuming power is available) and then running flat ethernet cable under the carpet.

Note that OR do staple fibre cable to skirting boards (see attached). You could pre-empt this by having ducting available. Once the route is agreed you have time to fit the ducting if the engineer is happy. Not the neatest of soulutions but perhaps better than stapling to walls.

Brian

[#7]

Thanks for the correction @bmc. I should have said "don't staple it with any old staple gun".

The white sheath is tough and is designed to be fairly resistant to being flexed or kinked. I'd describe it as about as flexible as most standard USB-C data cables, and slghtly slimmer. But unlike a USB cable, once it starts to fail, the whole thing all the way back outside to the customer splice point will have to be replaced by Openreach.

So it deserves being treated nicely.