The fibre journey for fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) solutions

you sign the contract we send you The fibre journey We contract with you to deliver your infrastructure in 12 months from the point you sign the contract we send you See what’s involved in the main stages of delivering FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet)…

The fibre journey This is the first step of the journey and means that the infrastructure for your community is now in our plans. This status will usually appear a few weeks after you have signed a contract with us.

The fibre journey We’re drawing up our network plans and assessing the best way to bring fibre to your area. Connecting copper lines to our superfast network can be a complex process: we’ll need to install a new street cabinet, and possibly new jointing boxes and ducts. To install new cabinets, we need permission from the local authority and to take into consideration the wishes of your community in terms of the visual or practical impact. The new cabinet has to be positioned as close to your existing cabinet (PCP) as possible (within 100M) to maximise the fibre speeds people can get. We also need to put a reliable power supply in place. At the end of this design process, we’ll have a blueprint in place for delivering fibre to your community.

The fibre journey We’ll now take the blueprints from the design stage to your community, and check that what looks good on paper works in the real world. Our surveyor needs to check that there’s sufficient space alongside all the existing utilities underground for our new wires, and whether the street cabinet is large enough for a fibre upgrade or needs replacing. We’ll also need to determine whether we’ll need to close any roads to install fibre and, if so, apply to the local authority for road traffic management, traffic lights etc. We’ll liaise closely with your local authority to ensure fibre is installed safely and with the minimum of disruption to local people.

The fibre journey At this point we’re ready to start the physical work in your community. We’ll be installing the new fibre cabinet and bringing fibre cable from your local telephone exchange to your area. You might see our teams working in the footway boxes along your street as they bring the fibre cable through the underground ducts or overhead on telephone poles. We’ll also be putting the fibre cabinet (DSLAM) in position which might cause a bit of disruption with traffic diversion and closed pavements and we’ll do our best to reduce this. Throughout the build phase we continue to work closely with the power companies and local authorities to reduce delays and keep disruption to a minimum.

The fibre journey We’re now connecting the power and fibre cables to the brand new cabinet in your area. The existing and new cabinets are now connected to each other by underground copper cables. The physical build is now completed and there shouldn’t need to be any further works in your area.

The fibre journey We’re performing our final quality and safety checks in your area. We’ll let service providers know that Superfast connections are available in your area. After this time, you can contact your service provider to upgrade to fibre.

The fibre journey Lots of service providers offer superfast fibre broadband for homes and businesses. Check out the deals they have available on their websites for you at home and for business and choose the one that best meets your needs. Enjoy life in the superfast lane!

www.communityfibre.openreach.co.uk