Relocating ONT when installing FTTP - possible?

[Riley Blue]

We're having BT FTTP installed next month but the existing master socket is in a very inconvenient place in a corner of the kitchen. We'd like the fibre ONT in a corner of the lounge, around a corner and along an external wall from where it is now.

Is that possible and if so, is it a job for Openreach?

[Captain_Morgan]

Possibly, how is the fibre being presented (ducted or via overhead pole)

As the installer nicely tea, biscuits & possibly a “drink” may help.

[Riley Blue]

It's ducted.

The present location is just about the worst possible as there's nowhere to put the hub except on the kitchen window sill. Is it worth asking BT before installation is carried out?

[FunkyGibbon]

Riley Blue said:

It's ducted.

Is it worth asking BT before installation is carried out?

You could try that, but the job will already be assigned to Openreach or one of their subbies.

CM gave the best advice, be nice offer loads of tea and biccies and the installer will put it where you want. The fact you had copper to the kitchen is just historical. They will be laying new fibre via the ducting, come out by the exiting duct and route it round your house and drill a new hole.

Make sure you have power where you want the ONT as that needs power as well as your router,

[Riley Blue]

FunkyGibbon said:

Riley Blue said:

It's ducted.

Is it worth asking BT before installation is carried out?

You could try that, but the job will already be assigned to Openreach or one of their subbies.

CM gave the best advice, be nice offer loads of tea and biccies and the installer will put it where you want. The fact you had copper to the kitchen is just historical. They will be laying new fibre via the ducting, come out by the exiting duct and route it round your house and drill a new hole.

Make sure you have power where you want the ONT as that needs power as well as your router,

Thank you both. Your scenario above is what I had envisaged; there's power right by where we'd like the ONT located.

[Sheepshanks]

Ours is overheard so it's possible yours may not be the same - can you see if any neighbours have had it done? - but our overhead cable is brought down the wall to a CSP - Customer Splice Point - where the overhead cable is joined to the internal cable.

In our case that internal cable goes back up the wall outside and then through the wall at our front landing to the ONT.

The CSP has to be pretty accessible - so they can get at it to do the splice - but from there the internal cable could go anywhere to join the ONT but unless its tacked to the outside of the house it'd be up to you to provide a route for it, perhaps through trunking./ conduit.

If they have to drill through the wall they'll be brutal - they're told to it from inside and the girl that did ours blew half the face off a brick.

[Captain_Morgan]

Don’t forget that the connection between ont & fw/router/switch/accesspoint is via ethernet so it’s entirely possible to have them upto 100m apart if you install a suitable ethernet interconnection.

I mention this only as a option should the ont be installed in a suboptimal location you still have the option to install your own interlink.

[Sheepshanks]

Apparently you can even interconnect them over powerline although I suppose there might be some speed impact.

The ONT is pretty small now - around 75mm square - so not very obtrusive,

[s1962a]

Captain_Morgan said:

Don’t forget that the connection between ont & fw/router/switch/accesspoint is via ethernet so it’s entirely possible to have them upto 100m apart if you install a suitable ethernet interconnection.

I mention this only as a option should the ont be installed in a suboptimal location you still have the option to install your own interlink.

I have this.. FTTP connection comes into one of the rooms upstairs (overhead line). I then have an ethernet cable that goes from the ONT into the garage and then into a unifi router/switch (we ran the cable during a refurbishment). Still get 1ms ping times on a speedtest so I don't think it makes much of a difference.

[Riley Blue]

All food for thought, it looks like it's possible one way or another - thanks.

[Riley Blue]

FTTP was installed on Monday. The ONT is where we wanted it to be in the lounge rather than in the kitchen and all it cost was two mugs of tea.