Is the copper removed?

[#1]

Fibre manifolds have gone up on the poles in my village, I will be looking to move to FTTP as soon as the dsl checker indicates that I can.

Our house was recently rendered and painted, the current copper added since then as there wasn’t a line previously.
Upon fibre being pulled to our house, is the copper removed or should I drill a larger hole for the fibre to pass through alongside the copper? I’m reluctant to let Openreach drill holes in case they blow the render off the outside of the house.

Also, does anyone have a picture of the current ONT and battery backup being installed?

[#2]

First of all, here is a photo of both old and new styles of the Openreach ONT. The newer one is at the bottom and this is the one you'll most likely have installed, the battery backup unit is integrated so there's only the one white box. This photo was provided by another member named bmc - full credit to him for providing it:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/su9iu1i9neccukk/ONT%20Styles.jpg?dl=0 As for the copper line, this is not removed it is just deactivated (unless Openreach have changed this policy in the past 6 months). You can remove it yourself if you wish (don't think this is against Openreach T&C's?), provided you ensure your voice landline service is provided through the fibre ONT box - this is called Fibre Voice Access (FVA). If you don't get FVA then the voice part of your landline will still run over the copper. I wouldn't drill a hole expecting Openreach to use that, fibre cable does not bend as well as copper does so your best bet is to "shoulder-surf" the engineer and ensure he drills where you want him to drill. In my case he did use an existing hole in the wall which was previously used by a Sky dish. Hope this helps!

[#3]

No, the copper remains as far as I know.

I've attached a picture of the current ONT (or at least what my neighbour got!!!). The back-up unit is now combined in the main unit (far neater!!!).

You'll see in this case OR where able to bring the fibre in via the original phone access - they do this if possible to save drilling new holes. The following link takes you to a fact sheet for the ONT

https://www.ournetwork.openreach.co.uk/news/new-equipment-for-installing-ultrafast-broadband-in-newl...

Hope this helps

Brian

[#4]

The copper will not be removed and your voice service will continue as normal, I don't believe Plusnet even offer FVA.

Have a look at this thread for what you should NOT do!

[#5]

Keep forgetting that this is Plusnet, yeah I think it's only BT that offer FVA right now so the copper will stay.

[#6]

Just a further thought.

While you most certainly should not drill a hole in advance the OR engineer might well be happy for you to do it if required once a location has been agreed. All you need is the equipment. I'm sure they would have enough to do while you did the  necessary.

Brian

[#7]

Sorry to dig this up again.

We have OR contractors testing the fibre today so hopefully not long until I can place an order.

After having spoken with a few OR engineers, it seems the original 2 or 4 pair copper is removed and a siamese cable is pulled to the house. Can anyone confirm? We are overhead by the way

[#8]

@MrMot

To repeat previous replies.

To the best of my knowledge the original phone cable is NOT removed. The new fibre cable is hung alongside the old cable to your house.

The new cable does need to be brought into the house. If you're lucky they'll be able to use the existing phone line entry. If not they'll need to drill one. If you have the equipment I'm sure the OR engineer would let you do the necessary.

FTTP became available on my street about a week after testing was complete. However I knew this because the chamber in my neighbour's garden turned out to be the last one on that circuit and the last to be tested so the network install guys were able to tell me on the spot the circuit had passed.

Brian

[#9]

The Siamese cable that the OP refers to is a combined copper and fibre cable that is sometimes used in this situation for a neater result. It should use the existing cable entry point. 

[#10]

@RealAleMadrid

Ok, so if used, the existing phone cable would be removed and replaced with a new combined phone cable and fibre cable.

This would suggest that the original phone entry point would be used in such a situation where the Master Socket would be re-wired to enable the phone and the fibre cable run to the ONT.

Brian

[#11]

On the new single stage connectorized install, its a combined fibre/copper dropwire..

[#12]

Top stuff. Our pole has a CBT or whatever the acronym is - the connectorised block at the top.