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Post by moonraker on Mar 9, 2023 11:01:29 GMT
How do BT or Openreach provide FTTP into people's homes using their own network? Presumably they will still use telegraph poles for fibre in some situations. One of the reasons I don't know much is because I would never use BT's overpriced services.
I've only had Cityfibre installed under the pavements. There is an openreach cabinet in the street and the copper from that cabinet comes via the legacy telegraph pole which has required replacement for the last 3 years thanks to an uncooperative neighbour or lies from openreach. Waiting for it to collapse.
Opposite my house is one pole serving nine houses, with phone wires to each strung over some distance. Last autumn I had FastFibre installed for free. I didn't like the idea of my drive or lawn being dug up, but as it happened the engineers strung another cable from the pole, through the bracket of my TV aerial on the side of the house, then down the wall, along the end of the house, three metres down the other side and through the wall of my living room (shattering a brick) to where my PC is.
I was happy enough with the phone-line service, but the installation was free. Not there's been any improvement in speeds because I remain on a low tariff (that is increasing by inflation plus 3%).
Just as well that I opted for the new cable, as last month my landline wasn't working for ten days or so, and it took three engineers' visits to work out there was a fault in the box on the top of the pole and another in the cabinet up the street. (I hardly ever use the landline nowadays, and the only calls that I get on it are scam/spam.)
Will they be recycling the redundant copper wires?
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Post by overthehill on Mar 9, 2023 14:59:44 GMT
How do BT or Openreach provide FTTP into people's homes using their own network? Presumably they will still use telegraph poles for fibre in some situations. One of the reasons I don't know much is because I would never use BT's overpriced services.
I've only had Cityfibre installed under the pavements. There is an openreach cabinet in the street and the copper from that cabinet comes via the legacy telegraph pole which has required replacement for the last 3 years thanks to an uncooperative neighbour or lies from openreach. Waiting for it to collapse.
Opposite my house is one pole serving nine houses, with phone wires to each strung over some distance. Last autumn I had FastFibre installed for free. I didn't like the idea of my drive or lawn being dug up, but as it happened the engineers strung another cable from the pole, through the bracket of my TV aerial on the side of the house, then down the wall, along the end of the house, three metres down the other side and through the wall of my living room (shattering a brick) to where my PC is.
I was happy enough with the phone-line service, but the installation was free. Not there's been any improvement in speeds because I remain on a low tariff (that is increasing by inflation plus 3%).
Just as well that I opted for the new cable, as last month my landline wasn't working for ten days or so, and it took three engineers' visits to work out there was a fault in the box on the top of the pole and another in the cabinet up the street. (I hardly ever use the landline nowadays, and the only calls that I get on it are scam/spam.)
Will they be recycling the redundant copper wires?
So did you keep your landline on the copper and switched the internet to fibre ? Was the cost the same ?
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
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Post by adrianc on Mar 9, 2023 15:24:19 GMT
So did you keep your landline on the copper and switched the internet to fibre ? Was the cost the same ? That's where we've been for the last few years. Two cables to the house - copper for the landline, fibre (FTTP - fibre to the property) for the broadband. FTTP broadband is a little more expensive than ADSL over copper, but there's no cost difference between copper landline and digital landline over FTTP.
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Post by moonraker on Mar 9, 2023 15:35:04 GMT
Opposite my house is one pole serving nine houses, with phone wires to each strung over some distance. Last autumn I had FastFibre installed for free. I didn't like the idea of my drive or lawn being dug up, but as it happened the engineers strung another cable from the pole, through the bracket of my TV aerial on the side of the house, then down the wall, along the end of the house, three metres down the other side and through the wall of my living room (shattering a brick) to where my PC is.
I was happy enough with the phone-line service, but the installation was free. Not there's been any improvement in speeds because I remain on a low tariff (that is increasing by inflation plus 3%).
Just as well that I opted for the new cable, as last month my landline wasn't working for ten days or so, and it took three engineers' visits to work out there was a fault in the box on the top of the pole and another in the cabinet up the street. (I hardly ever use the landline nowadays, and the only calls that I get on it are scam/spam.)
Will they be recycling the redundant copper wires?
So did you keep your landline on the copper and switched the internet to fibre ? Was the cost the same ?
Yes and yes. No change to my existing contract and no discernable difference in performance because I'm still on a low tariff. It's still good enough for my uses - I download very little, and then it's short documents, and no buffering when streaming, just as before.TBH I could have lived without the landline working, but it's there as a back-up until it's phased out. The cost of all this must be high and I suppose will be recouped through higher contract prices. There's the cost of digging up streets, then two engineers spent two hours stringing the FastFibre cable to and around my house, and I got a free new router (which alone can retail at £90 or so).
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2023 7:27:53 GMT
Change can be worrying
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Jul 4, 2023 12:42:16 GMT
Well it went better than expected.
I moved the "master" handsfree set to the back bedroom. plugged it in on the day and it didn't work,
I being techie rebooted the router and everything was then fine.
The next day she got a message from from Virgin media that they were doing some upgrades, after the upgrade she had lost all recordings etc on the Virgin TIVO box, so she rang Virgin LOL muppet from Virgin media wanted her to reboot the router whilst on the phone, he insisted the phone line would stay up whilst the router was rebooted !
a few days later I went with my partner to try to sort one of her elderly friends phone that was no longer working.
get there and she shows me the letter about moving off PSTN to a more modern solution, and the connector they sent to connect to router, the issue she doesn't have broadband and the connector is designed to go to a specific phone port on the router. BT have now sent her a router so it's all working.
Not sure what happens when it reaches here, as my router only has one phone type connection and that goes to the broadband. The 4 network ports are all in use ( Printer, Main PC, streaming Box and hive ) the Router is < 6 months old so either someone gives me another box or I lose my landline.
It seems to me that ISPs giving out boxes that will be scrap in the next 2-3 years is generating waste
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
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Post by adrianc on Jul 4, 2023 14:45:46 GMT
Ours got changed the other week, too.
MAJOR pain in the backside.
Most of our landline calls are local - you can't just dial the local number, you need the STD code.
Our extension sockets, of course, no longer work. That's a big problem, because her office is the other side of a thick stone wall, so the cordless handset doesn't work up there. And, of course, we've got no mobile signal.
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
Posts: 3,875
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Post by keitha on Jul 4, 2023 17:01:23 GMT
Ours got changed the other week, too. MAJOR pain in the backside. Most of our landline calls are local - you can't just dial the local number, you need the STD code. Our extension sockets, of course, no longer work. That's a big problem, because her office is the other side of a thick stone wall, so the cordless handset doesn't work up there. And, of course, we've got no mobile signal. but of course it works in a modern house made of ticky tacky which is where it was tested. reminds me that some years ago I was on a project to install WIFI and other services through out a castle. I specified a system with every room connected by cable and a WIFI access point in every room. this was rejected as A) too expensive B) unnecessary "WIFI works throughout my house you don't need a point in every room" So the user went on the advice from their management and put 1 Access point in the reception area. It gets to testing and the EPOS system isn't working ( Was setup in reception then moved 80 yards to cafeteria) "It can't see the network it must be down" I check and it's ok in reception. User rings Cabling company in a Panic and ignoring me asks them to come out and install an access point in the cafeteria. I get them to sign up for configuration of the additional AP. I walk through the building and as expected the WIFI is struggling to punch through 1 3 foot stone wall let alone 3 or 4 of them User insists that 2 APs will work, and that I'm just trying to generate more work my my company and the cabling company. End result was the project cost massively more than my original quote and was massively delayed as they hadn't thought that you can't just go round drilling holes through walls in scheduled monuments and yes it ended up with an Access point in virtually every room.
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 13, 2023 14:20:37 GMT
I am a BT customer who was using a single copper feed for both landline and broadband. I have just been converted to fibre (Fibre To The Premises in the jargon). It took just over one year, 7 visits and a lot of work. I live on the edge of civilisation - just over 3 BT poles away from a paved road. The general area was converted to digital about a year ago. The 2 fibre boxes are in the loft and needed a mains supply. Openreach wanted to install the boxes in a bedroom (much lower and easier to access) but were thwarted by a lack of mains sockets on that side of the house! BT supplied a short (30 cms) network cable to connect the fibre box to the router. I already had a suitable router (provided by BT some 2 years ago after a fault on their network). My plan to run a Cat 6 network cable from the fibre box in the loft to the router in the bedroom was a non-starter because when I wired the house for broadband and insulated the loft a few years ago, I did not plan for mid-life upgrades... So, the router is now also in the loft and I had to double up on the mains supply. All connections to the router are now wireless. Luckily, my pc had a wireless card already fitted and that just needed energising. The BT SmartHub 2 router has 4 network ports, and one is used by the fibre box - leaving 3.
keitha , you might wish to consider expanding your wired network or moving to wireless. Speeds Before (network cable): Download - ~12Mbps Upload - <1Mbps Speeds Now (wireless): Download - ~35Mbps Upload - ~10Mbps The quality of the connection appears to be much improved but that is only based on my experience of a few days. My copper connection to the house has gone and the internal telephone wiring is now redundant. Does anyone want a box of telephony bits and pieces? I confirm that locally dialled numbers are no longer available; the STD code is required for all calls. The back of the router has a telephone socket into which I have plugged both a basic handset and a more complex Panasonic phone. Both work with the new digital system. But BT also issues a basic wireless telephone (the BT Advanced Digital Home Phone). That phone is connected wirelessly to the router (climb up into the loft, press the WPS button, wait 30 mins, repeat, swear, repeat, swear, repeat, hooray!) and works well. The quality of the sound is much improved. But it is a basic phone that only offers call recording and, for some strange reason, Alexa. It also has such a quiet ring-tone that I cannot hear it in the other half of the house! Of course, the one thing that I have lost is something that I cannot simulate. If I were to suffer a local or wider power failure, I would lose both broadband and telephone. My backup is then a mobile telephone until the various batteries involved expire!
So, if zombies arrive at the door shortly afterwards, I will be unable to call for help... I will leave things as they are for the moment, but I expect that I will have to buy a smarter, and louder, digital phone. Happy to discuss although I appreciate that my circumstances are different to others! MW |
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
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Post by adrianc on Jul 13, 2023 15:39:23 GMT
But BT also issues a basic wireless telephone (the BT Advanced Digital Home Phone). That phone is connected wirelessly to the router (climb up into the loft, press the WPS button, wait 30 mins, repeat, swear, repeat, swear, repeat, hooray!) and works well. The quality of the sound is much improved. But it is a basic phone that only offers call recording and, for some strange reason, Alexa. It also has such a quiet ring-tone that I cannot hear it in the other half of the house! That's interesting. I shall investigate. Basically, cordless landline handset over wifi? That's the answer to my problem, for sure. BT's solution to that is a small UPS to cover the power failure. You don't have to buy theirs, any UPS will do. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09YDPL9ZK/ looks a decent capacity for money. If you think it's going to be shorter outages, and it's just for the phone/router/fibre kit, then the 600 (£50) would be perfectly adequate. More likely is a fibre outage - we had nine days last spring. It's a lot more delicate than copper... At least you have a mobile signal.
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 13, 2023 17:08:20 GMT
But BT also issues a basic wireless telephone (the BT Advanced Digital Home Phone). That phone is connected wirelessly to the router (climb up into the loft, press the WPS button, wait 30 mins, repeat, swear, repeat, swear, repeat, hooray!) and works well. The quality of the sound is much improved. But it is a basic phone that only offers call recording and, for some strange reason, Alexa. It also has such a quiet ring-tone that I cannot hear it in the other half of the house! That's interesting. I shall investigate. Basically, cordless landline handset over wifi? That's the answer to my problem, for sure. BT's solution to that is a small UPS to cover the power failure. You don't have to buy theirs, any UPS will do. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09YDPL9ZK/ looks a decent capacity for money. If you think it's going to be shorter outages, and it's just for the phone/router/fibre kit, then the 600 (£50) would be perfectly adequate. More likely is a fibre outage - we had nine days last spring. It's a lot more delicate than copper... At least you have a mobile signal. What kills the power supply is overhead lines, trees and wind, and then large industrial users with heavy machines stopping and starting all the time. As I live on the edge of a large town, I am not affected by either and I reckon that the availability of my mains supply must be close to 99.99%. Thanks for pointing me at the UPS but I might give that a miss in favour of a mobile oriented router. I consider that, as with your situation, I am most likely to be affected by something hitting my fibre cable. If I lose the broadband then a visit to Currys should put me back on-line until Openreach sort out the problem.
I have 2 bars of a 5 bar mobile signal. With luck those zombies will not know what hit them...
MW
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,014
Likes: 4,825
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Post by adrianc on Jul 13, 2023 17:28:59 GMT
I consider that, as with your situation, I am most likely to be affected by something hitting my fibre cable. If I lose the broadband then a visit to Currys should put me back on-line until Openreach sort out the problem. If the fibre goes down, BT will send you a 4G mini router as a stopgap. They seemed surprised when I told them that was pointless, and then kept telling them it didn't help...
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 13, 2023 18:27:10 GMT
I didn't know that...
Thanks!
MW
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mogish
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Post by mogish on Jul 14, 2023 13:54:12 GMT
I'm currently on 2mbs on copper wire.
House half a me away have super fast broadband.
I'd be happy to have fibre cable tied to my external copper wire.
The fibre speeds offered by shell are currently a tenner cheaper than my sloooowww speeds via sky.
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Post by mostlywrong on Aug 7, 2023 17:46:06 GMT
Just to follow up...
Previously, I commented on the quiet ring tone of the digital handset, provided by BT, which I could not hear on the other side of the house.
I decided to buy a similar version from ebay, which arrived today.
I registered the handset with the router and noticed that the menu options were different to the provided handset. The new one had an option to adjust the volume.
Back to the original handset - which now offers the same volume control!  ?
How did I miss that option?
I can only assume that BT updated the software in the handset and I didn't notice.
Or, I am so blind and/or stupid that I didn't notice the option when I registered and set up the original handset...
MW
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