Can this BT socket accept full fibre?
Discussion
Just about to pull the trigger on 500mb full fibre (upgrade from 73mb) at my folks house. Got to the end of the process only to find an engineer is required to upgrade copper cabling to the house. Ok so far. However, the current cable enters through the wall just under the eaves and travels through the cavity wall into the ground level room below. The house is high spec and only two years old but we don’t know what cabling is inside the cavity wall. We do not want a cable running down the wall outside the house or inside the house. We don’t need 500mb, it’s simply the cheapest package. If new unsightly cabling is required it’s a total non starter and we’ll stick with what we have.
Below are two pictures of the cable entering the house and the sockets inside. Can anyone tell from these sockets if the internal wiring is all good for full fibre or new holes and cables are required? Thanks.
Below are two pictures of the cable entering the house and the sockets inside. Can anyone tell from these sockets if the internal wiring is all good for full fibre or new holes and cables are required? Thanks.
My experience of a fibre install (not via openreach) is that they ran an entirely new cable and the old master socket is completely null and void.
It gave me an opportunity to think again about where I wanted the connection to come in and how it will link to my existing network.
Is there a location on an external wall which might suit and you can then form the basis of a wired and/or mesh WiFi arrangement?
It gave me an opportunity to think again about where I wanted the connection to come in and how it will link to my existing network.
Is there a location on an external wall which might suit and you can then form the basis of a wired and/or mesh WiFi arrangement?
ChrisNic said:
My experience of a fibre install (not via openreach) is that they ran an entirely new cable and the old master socket is completely null and void.
It gave me an opportunity to think again about where I wanted the connection to come in and how it will link to my existing network.
Is there a location on an external wall which might suit and you can then form the basis of a wired and/or mesh WiFi arrangement?
Agree, none of the existing incoming wiring will be used by FTTP. It gave me an opportunity to think again about where I wanted the connection to come in and how it will link to my existing network.
Is there a location on an external wall which might suit and you can then form the basis of a wired and/or mesh WiFi arrangement?
Thanks for these replies. Good to know the socket isnt up to the job. I had not considered changing location of these socket. However, the house is fully wired with Cat 5 cable and connects directly into the current master socket. Moving that socket would just create a different wiring problem.
The crazy thing is it’s £10 per month cheaper for 500mb + engineer than 73mb already in place. At least i now know what im dealing with. Thanks.
The crazy thing is it’s £10 per month cheaper for 500mb + engineer than 73mb already in place. At least i now know what im dealing with. Thanks.
When the renewed with PlusNet it was cheaper to have full fibre installed at 4x the existing speed.
They fed a cable under the pavement to the existing conduit for the master socket, then took the cable around the outside of the house (virtually invisible) and through the lounge wall which was my desired location.
They fitted a new faceplate to the wall which connects to your router with a cable. It also needs a power source so a power socket within reach is a prerequisite.
Our existing router was up to the job so after 15 mins downtime, it was up and running.
They fed a cable under the pavement to the existing conduit for the master socket, then took the cable around the outside of the house (virtually invisible) and through the lounge wall which was my desired location.
They fitted a new faceplate to the wall which connects to your router with a cable. It also needs a power source so a power socket within reach is a prerequisite.
Our existing router was up to the job so after 15 mins downtime, it was up and running.
SonicHedgeHog said:
Thanks for these replies. Good to know the socket isnt up to the job. I had not considered changing location of these socket. However, the house is fully wired with Cat 5 cable and connects directly into the current master socket. Moving that socket would just create a different wiring problem.
The crazy thing is it’s £10 per month cheaper for 500mb + engineer than 73mb already in place. At least i now know what im dealing with. Thanks.
It’s not that it’s not up to the job, it’s a completely different termination and you will have an optical termination box along these lines instead of (or as well as if you want to keep it) the existing socket. The crazy thing is it’s £10 per month cheaper for 500mb + engineer than 73mb already in place. At least i now know what im dealing with. Thanks.
No direct knowledge of FTTP but if it means Fibre To The Premises then it is a fibre optic connection to your premises or house. This is not really a cable but some people call it a cable. It is a fibre which has light travelling up and down it. I think of it more as a pipe like a hose which carries water. If you currently have copper cables that carry electrical signals then hopefully you can understand the difference and how these 2 are obviously totally incompatible.
SonicHedgeHog said:
Any new wires is a non starter
To be fair the new wire should be quite subtle. I was unlucky in that the telegraph pole is just beyond my back garden and kitchen overlooks the back garden. Engineer insisted he had to drill the wire (green one in the pic) in through the kitchen wall. Middle wire connects to the router which about the size of 2 cigarette packets. Obviously you need a double electric socket in proximity.
I have an ethernet cable from the router secured with those little clip things running to an 8 way switch in my office. The ethernet looks a bit ugly but if you're OK running everything off wifi you won't need that.
SonicHedgeHog said:
Thanks everyone. Their house is a brand new, one-off build. Any new wires is a non starter. They are quite rightly very proud of the house and don’t want any visible wires, regardless of how tidy they are. Learn something though so that’s very useful.
It can be done very tidily, my installation is really no more visible that what you’ve posted in photos. Any external cabling should certainly be neater than what they have running in from the pole in the photo. I’d thoroughly recommend having it done as copper is on its way out as technology and they will have to deal with it sooner or later. Since the house has cat5 already can you get fibre installed to another area with a cat5 socket? Surely there is a service cupboard where all that terminates to anyway?
You will have to get fibre eventually and you won’t be able to switch to another copper isp now that fibre is in the area as copper will have a stop sell on it.
You will have to get fibre eventually and you won’t be able to switch to another copper isp now that fibre is in the area as copper will have a stop sell on it.
SonicHedgeHog said:
If new unsightly cabling is required it’s a total non starter and we’ll stick with what we have.
Fibre To The Cabinet is being phased out over the next couple of years so they may have to switch anyway... I was also on 73mb/s and happy with it when I renewed a few months ago (I had similar reservations to you/ couldn't be bothered with the hassle of having a new connection installed) only for them to book me in for a free 'upgrade' to FTTP anyway, at which point I caved in and bit the bullet.Whilst I'm happy with the physical installation and don't really need the extra bandwidth, the 'upgrade' also appears to be throttled to 73mb/s, so I wish I'd just plumped for a better FTTP package in the first place!
SonicHedgeHog said:
We do not want a cable running down the wall outside the house.....
Ours has the overhead fibre brought down the outside wall to a Customer Splice Point (CSP) grey box, where the external fibre is spliced to the internal cable. Then (in our case) the internal cable goes back up to first floor level and through the wall.If I'd known the CSP was requred I'd have had the overhead cable attached to the house in a different place.
Also, the Openreach girl that did it, blasted a hole for the internal cable though the wall from the inside and took the face off a brick doing it. Apparently it's normal for them to do this. Fortunately she was so brutal it only broke into three pieces and I stick them back in place.
The cable from the nte to the junction box on your overhead looks like cat5e or cat6. You might be lucky as some homebuilders sparks do that run in cat5 instead of 3 pair, as they usually have that handy in the van.
If it is you could have them bring the fibre into the attic through the soffit and put the ont there, then reroute the cat5e to the ont and swap the nte where the existing router is for an rj45 faceplate and plug that into the wan port of the router.
If it is you could have them bring the fibre into the attic through the soffit and put the ont there, then reroute the cat5e to the ont and swap the nte where the existing router is for an rj45 faceplate and plug that into the wan port of the router.
Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Sunday 4th May 15:44
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