Fibre installation process

[#1]

Yes, that's exactly it. It is close to a Virgin 'Toby Box' that looks almost identical. How do you know all this stuff?!

Wow, the fibre cable and duct is really tiny. I learned from the chaps that were digging up the pavements that they blow the cable through - so clever (unless it gets stuck). They did unfortunately chop through our neighbours telephone line tho!

Thank you for the link - very informative.

Chris

[#2]

@bigfish 

First things first - the Toby Box is the CF entry point to your property. You need to be able to trench from there to your chosen house entry point.

B4RN is a community owned ISP which works mainly in rural parishes. It installs at a Parish level - it is the locals who drum up support, create a plan for the network and are responsible for doing each house set up from the properties edge. They've being going for over a decade. I been following them on Facebook for as long as I remember. They charge £33pm for a one gig up / one gig down service - cheap because a lot of the work is done by volunteers.

A fibre optic cable is thinner than a human hair - what you mainly see is the protective sheath. As for Toby Boxes I learnt about them when government money became available and B4RN were able to start doing small villiages where tarmac trenching is required. Previously they couldn't do this as trenching tarmac was / is too expensive for them

Brian

[#3]

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@bigfish wrote:

City Fibre have only carried out the infrastructure work in our street. They have laid bundles of very small, empty conduits, (they apparently call these 'straws') in the pavement.

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Can you chat up a CF person and blag a length of 'straw' from them? Otherwise I would put in a bigger duct so that they could  feed their 'straw' through it. I would guess that if CF blow the fibre that their equipment is designed to work with the size of the straw. That does not mean that they could use it with your choice of conduit.

It would be interesting to know whether CF dig a trench. When I had gas installed they just dug a few holes along the route and moled the gas pipe between the holes.

[#4]

That sounds like a good suggestion. Unfortunately, CF have done their infrastructure work locally; I would have to undertake a wider search to find them!  

[#5]

@bigfish 

The size of the duct CF use is not particuarily relevent - the blowing machine creates an air seal on the duct and then blows air and "pushes" fibre cable through.

Assuming the "straws" are indeed 5mm then a 5mm length of duct is laid from the toby box to the entry point. It is connected in the TB by a hozelock type connector which creats an air tight seal. The top of the TB opens for this purpose.

How the 5mm duct is put into the ground is purely down to the circumstances of each property. In my case they'd use the existing OR house duct - in the OP's case they would need to trench accross the garden. TB's are used when there is no garden - they're put next to the house wall. The fibre duct comes out of the top of the TB close to the wall.

If you put down larger duct in advance you need to use a good size diameter so it's easy to push the duct through. A draw rope would help but I don't think it is as important with duct as it would be for cable. Try and avoid right angled corners and leave space at either end for CF to work. If you have a wall or hedge they need to dig under it to get to the TB. Take photographs so the CF installers can see what's available.

The following link from 2012 shows a fibre blow (96 core I believe - B4RN use up to 288 core cable). In particular it shows the set up process for the blow.

https://b4rn.org.uk/about-b4rn/news-events/learning-how-to-fleet-fibre

I believe they no longer blow sponges through. JFDI ( the informal company motto) doesn't stand for Just Farmers Doing It - that's the polite version.

Brian

[#6]

@bigfish 

CF were back at the chamber today. They seemed to be air pressure testing the duct.

The silver lever arm holds the OR CBT and folds up to allow work on the CBT.

Brian

[#7]

Me again!  Does anyone know what CityFibre use for their ONT device or do they use a variety of ONTs?

I am trying to find a suitable position for the ONT that isn’t too obvious. I saw a web site that suggests that CityFibre use a Calix 801G and I’ve downloaded the spec sheet for it. It would appear to be 102mm long by 76mm wide by 32.5mm deep.

When we finally sign up for CityFibre broadband, I am hoping to persuade the installation engineer to locate the ONT in a discrete location so knowing what size it is likely to be would be helpful.

Chris

[#8]

@bigfish 

I would imagine the location of the ONT is largely determined by where the fibre comes into the house. There may be a of leeway if you're willing to run internal duct.

Brian

[#9]

Yes, I have two locations for the ONT in mind. I can accommodate either and locate the termination point of the external fibre route, but one will be more visible than the other.

Do you know if the ONT gets warm?! The pictures of the one that appears on the internet seems to have fins on its surface which seems to indicate that the box might get hot. This would probably negate one of the locations; a long, low cabinet under my TV.

I think that the CitFibre ONT looks like this...  Not the prettiest thing, especially the domed blob that presumably covers the hole through the external wall!

[#10]

especially the domed blob that presumably covers the hole through the external wall!

That is attached to a tube which protects the fibre going through a wall cavity, presumably from being hit by falling debris?

It also controls the fibre bend from the horizontal to the vertical.