Just ordered FTTP - do I need to worry about trees?

[#1]

Status has changed in the last day or 2 and I've just placed an order.

Comment on checker:

"OH Feed with Line of sight problems Trees"

Do I need to worry about that?

[#2]

@tonycollinet 

Yes and no.

The team who installed the backbone network will have spotted a potential problem with "line of sight" to your house. It'll be up to OR to sort something out but will probably delay your install.

Does it also say KCI2 to the right in the Checker results window? This means a survey is required.

Brian

[#3]

@tonycollinet Do your current cables have problems? How far are you from your pole?

[#4]

@bmc There is no KC12 - so presumably no survey is needed.

@jab1 copper is underground, so my house has not had an overhead connection previously.

Though I have been doing my own survey. 😎

There are actually 3 poles with CBTs within range. In the attached map, are four poles. 

Pole one is newly installed directly outside my boundary (a wall) but has no CBT - currently just used for spine support from 3 to 2.

Pole 2, 3 and 4 all have unoccupied 8 port CBTs. I have no idea which pole is intended to serve my house.

3 is closest (By a little) but also currently serves 8 properties further down Sandbach Road with copper.
2  seems the obvious choice since it is in my street, but also has worst line of sight through trees - though it would be possible to run a drop cable parallel with the spine to pole 1 and use pole 1 as a support and "corner" to mitigate the tree cover. Pole 3 could also use pole 1 as a support/corner.
4 seems to have best visibility of my house but would still need to route between tree trunks.

Presumably the engineer will show up on the day and decide if it can be installed or not. Does he have any choice about which CBT to use - or is that pre-assigned and fixed?

Moderator's note:
Image rejected. Personal information removed from a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

[#5]

Edit : Comment on pole 2 - it isn't quite where shown on the map (I checked after I'd drawn the map). It is closer, more or less level with the third house along on that side.

[#6]

Your's is a confusing situation - normally, if your feed is UG now, your FTTP would also be UG.

[#7]

I'm guessing blocked ducting. Or - our group of 5 houses are the only ones served underground in the area - everyone else has overhead, so rationalisation. Or - OR have been building in this area just by installing a bunch of new poles everywhere. Perhaps they've just decided this is simpler or cheaper or better for future maintenance.

Either way - I'm glad - because underground would have necessitated cutting through my nice printed concrete driveway 🙂

[#8 · Accepted solution]

@tonycollinet 

The key phrase is 'FTTP is available and a new ONT may be ordered'.

There's no point in you worrying about it and all this surmising, Openreach are taking orders for the upgrade so all you can do is order it and let them get on with it.

As your landline is provided via a different route there should not be any risk to this connection caused by an installation issue. It's not akin to the disaster that can occur when an existing copper cable is used in a futile attempt to pull fibre through a blocked duct.

[#9]

Moderator's note:
Thread moved from Full Fibre to My Order

[#10]

Good advice of course - nothing I can do until the engineer shows up on the day.


Another question - if I may.

I already have a boxed unused hub 2 supplied when I upgraded to FTTC. Is this the same hub 2 used for FTTP to plug into the ONT?. It has a wan port.

Should I contact plus-net and tell them not to send another?

[#11]

If you already have a Hub2, PN should be aware.

[#12]

@tonycollinet 

It is the same Hub. However the FTTP version comes with two Ethernet cables, one with red plugs and the other with yellow. The one that you have probably came with a yellow plugged Ethernet cable and a grey plugged dsl lead.

Apart from the colour of the plugs, used as it makes the connection instructions easier to understand, the Ethernet cables are identical.

Whether Plusnet will send you a new Hub 2 then require you to return the one that you already have is unknown.

[#13]

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@tonycollinet wrote:

@jab1 copper is underground, so my house has not had an overhead connection previously.

Though I have been doing my own survey. 😎

There are actually 3 poles with CBTs within range. In the attached map, are four poles. 

Pole one is newly installed directly outside my boundary (a wall) but has no CBT - currently just used for spine support from 3 to 2.

Pole 2, 3 and 4 all have unoccupied 8 port CBTs. I have no idea which pole is intended to serve my house.

3 is closest (By a little) but also currently serves 8 properties further down Sandbach Road with copper.
2  seems the obvious choice since it is in my street, but also has worst line of sight through trees - though it would be possible to run a drop cable parallel with the spine to pole 1 and use pole 1 as a support and "corner" to mitigate the tree cover. Pole 3 could also use pole 1 as a support/corner.
4 seems to have best visibility of my house but would still need to route between tree trunks.

Presumably the engineer will show up on the day and decide if it can be installed or not. Does he have any choice about which CBT to use - or is that pre-assigned and fixed

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All sorts can happen on the day, as long as someone turns up they will try to get something done.  It is when they go to 'tree pruning needed' and you have to wait for the tree pruner (or worse the tree planning permissions) it goes wrong

For example my neighbour has their overhead fibre feed tied to a hook nailed into an electricity pole to give a slight dog-leg and reduce the single span.

CBT on 2 via pole 1 sounds simplest ?

[#14]

Just to follow up:

It was all sorted yesterday. The engineer ran a cable from the CBT on pole 3 to the support pole next to my house. From the top of that pole he then had to lob a coil of cable over a couple of branches further away - Job done.

I don't know what he gets paid - but it probably isn't enough.