City fibre are doing the install
Broadband and telephones
- Thread starter monday
- Start date
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I will find out in a few minutes but from the post across the street to my house does the cable only contain 1 solitary piece of fibre.
That is my understanding, about the thickness of a hair. To joint it, they have to cut the ends clean and square, and using a microscope gadget, push the ends together, align, then heat seal them.
The laser light, which shines down the fibre, is invisible to the human eye. To find damage or leaks from the fibre, they use a tool which shines a visible red laser down the fibre. That's what the used to track down the faulty termination of mine, where the outdoor fibre, was terminated/joined, to the indoor one, using the above joint gadget.
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So there is a lot of reinforcing protection in that cable then.
The microscope thing and welding of the fibre is why they insist on the outside connection being at ground level or in your case a good floor in the loft
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Yep - they absolutely cannot do the indoor to oudoor fibre joint, at the top of a ladder, or anywhere awkward..
The terminator, is just a box, where the joint is located. It has space to wind the surplus fibre around inside, to protect it from being disturbed.
Well, 4 fibres then. He said one for me, one for next door (he tells me they are having it installed) and two spares.
They must have joined mine in the wall. I have a black cable going into the house which turns to white inside going to the box thingy that the router plugs in to.
They normally either bring it down the outside wall, to ground level - if from the pole, or bring it under the ground, to the wall, then install the terminator box, on the wall, there outside - though I suppose the terminator could be indoors. It's a box around 5 x 4 x 1 inches.
The 'box thingy' is the ONT. It converts from light/fibre, to wired network data.
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Well mine is now all done, pleased to say they no issues getting the ladder over my canopy but they had to drill a hole low down to fit a temporary eye bolt to lash the bottom of the ladders to.
But there was no welding of fibre as the cable came fitted with a plug attached and they have different lengths on the van and any spare gets stored rolled up inside the outside box. As it already had the plug attached this made the cable a little more delicate so you dont damage the end as the lact 4 inch did not even have and black sheath on it although it did have a much thinner white one.
Speed at computer wired with old copper was 58 down and 14.8 up and it is now 145down and 156 up --- still waiting for it to settle down still and am testing different positions of phone for the wifi - lounge bedroom - outside to compare with the old copper.
But there was no welding of fibre as the cable came fitted with a plug attached and they have different lengths on the van and any spare gets stored rolled up inside the outside box. As it already had the plug attached this made the cable a little more delicate so you dont damage the end as the lact 4 inch did not even have and black sheath on it although it did have a much thinner white one.
Speed at computer wired with old copper was 58 down and 14.8 up and it is now 145down and 156 up --- still waiting for it to settle down still and am testing different positions of phone for the wifi - lounge bedroom - outside to compare with the old copper.
Although they were able to route the cable where I wanted it so its out of sight, I do not like the drop wire attachment looks a bit ugly and like I am about to do a cable slide out of the bedroom - looks like this only its attached to the brick with an eye bolt not angle iorn. The old open reach twirly wire is much neater i think .
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Looks like a bit of galvanised Dexion angle. The screwed an eye bolt into the UPVC fascia, hopefully through into the end of the roof timber. Then used a sort of shackle, to take the fibre.
I already had one of my ladders set up, and well settled into the soil of the front garden, so he used that.
Interesting, that yours was ready terminated, so no termination box/joint needed - I wonder if that might be what they did for Mottie?
It does leave me puzzled as to how they terminate at the pole end? I wasn't watching that part too close. All I saw, after he had agreed to it all going in the loft, was him run about 40 yards of outdoor fibre off his drum, shin up the pole, then he came over and added the eye bolt, leaving the fibre looped up and down the footpath, across the road. I was a bit concerned when it came time for him to run the fibre across the road, in case there was some traffic passing, but he timed it to perfection. The length he measured, or guessed at, was just 6 feet to long.
No that is just a picture off the net --I should of made it clearer with some dashes "looks like this ---- only its attached to the brick with an eye bolt not angle iorn."
So yes ignore the angle iron. They drilled a new eye bolt in the brick next to the old open reach one and attached the clothes line contraption
to the eye boltHe wasn't up there long I think it must be another plug. He did say that if any fibre needs welding then its a different team that have to come out.
The cable from the outside box to the ONT was also with fixed plugs and they carry different lengths of that too.
The fact that it was pre fixt plugs almost caught me out because I had only planned on needing holes for small cable that was also stiff but the plug ends are about 12mm BUT very floppy on the end so hole needs to be big enough for the plug end AND a bendy plastic push rod.
My install had a pre fitted plug at the pole end and a bare end in the house which got a plug fitted to it on the day. There is no external splice as the cable runs in duct under the lawn then up the outside of the house into the loft, across the loft and down through the stud walls into a hall cupboard. I also have about 20m of excess fibre coiled in the loft despite already cutting off about 30m before running it through the walls. When the installer arrived with a 100m pre made cable I did think it was OTT but it turned out that was all they had in stock at the time. Easy to shorten, much harder to lengthen.
So yes ignore the angle iron. They drilled a new eye bolt in the brick next to the old open reach one and attached the clothes line contraption
The clothes line contraption, is likely what I have - to be fair, I have not really looked at that part.
Unless the head end at the top of the pole, is already prepared, just to plug in, and the only bit needing preparation is the cable end on the drum, and they could do that in the van?
Now you mention the box. Might the box be the joint between external fibre, and the internal which has a plug for the ONT, already fitted?
A couple of these can quickly and easily connect a copper pair telephone line in almost any location,
The restrictions and inconveniences involved in welding fibre optic cable were ignored when the decision was made to replace POTS using copper with VoIP using fibre.
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