Moving FTTP Cable

dlockers

dlockers

dlockers

Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
Posts
24,503
Hi guys,

When BT came and did the FTTP install I was a bit distracted. I hadn't realised they'd ran the ugly cable right down the front of the house and across my lovely 1930s ornate brick built porch......

I have a grey box outside, and then they've drilled a hole into the "under the stairs" cupboard.

Ideally I'd like to terminate the fibre into the attic and then relocate the modem up there, and run a cat5/6 down to the router.

Without being preached to about touching the CPE, is it a case of unplugging the modem and feeding the fibre back through the house? Or is there a connection outside to the grey box? Was the fibre from the grey box to the modem terminated on site, or is it just a fly lead?

Many thanks
 
In the grey box is a spliced connection, so unless you want to drill a hole large enough to get the entire box through you will need Openreach to do the move for you. Your ISP can order an ONT shift, it's £89.04+VAT until the 1st April when it goes up to £98.93.

I guess if you can find somebody with a fusion splicer you could have them reconnect for you, but I'm not sure they'd cost less than Openreach.
 
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I'd be very surprised if Openreach / subbies will bring the cable into your attic, from all the ones I've spoken to so far (we average an install a week) they all say the grey box has to be around a metre or lower to the ground where they splice the cable together.
 
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They will bring the external cable through into a boarded loft area that is accessed via stairs and do the splice between the external and internal cable at that point. They won't climb around an unboarded loft or use your step ladders of unknown history to access the loft. If you can't provide that sort of setup for them then you are best off installing conduit and a pull line to get the cable back to a sensible location to make the splice.
 
Glanza said:
I'd be very surprised if Openreach / subbies will bring the cable into your attic, from all the ones I've spoken to so far (we average an install a week) they all say the grey box has to be around a metre or lower to the ground where they splice the cable together.
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We had a Kellys engineer at work recently who was happy to give us the fibre cable and sit in his van whilst we did all the work inside running it through an unboarded loft down to our comms cabinet in the basement.
 
Caged said:
In the grey box is a spliced connection, so unless you want to drill a hole large enough to get the entire box through you will need Openreach to do the move for you. Your ISP can order an ONT shift, it's £89.04+VAT until the 1st April when it goes up to £98.93.

I guess if you can find somebody with a fusion splicer you could have them reconnect for you, but I'm not sure they'd cost less than Openreach.
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Do you mean I can disconnect the modem from the grey box, and move the grey box freely?

Sorry I would go outside and check but my god it is cold/ I am on work calls.
 
You can unplug the ONT, but the cable is fed from inside-out and then spliced so the connector won't fit through the hole in your wall.
 
Caged said:
You can unplug the ONT, but the cable is fed from inside-out and then spliced so the connector won't fit through the hole in your wall.
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The grey box will effectively be "inside" my house (attached to fascia board near loft). Can I then get a ready made cable from grey box to the modem? I.e. just bin the current connector?
 
No, it's a fusion spliced joint. There's no connectors inside that box. Moving the grey box (customer splice point) to somewhere that can only be accessed by ladder is a good way to ensure nobody can repair your drop cable.
 
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Caged said:
No, it's a fusion spliced joint. There's no connectors inside that box. Moving the grey box (customer splice point) to somewhere that can only be accessed by ladder is a good way to ensure nobody can repair your drop cable.
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Welp, that's scuppered any easy plans then.

For anyone else interested:
vCYB2nf.jpg
 
Looks like nearly the right colour compo, I see they left you a Nice Blowout where the cable comes through the wall.
In all seriousness, I'll keep this info in mind for my FTTP install. When we last had Virgin installed I pulled the old cable out the lawn which was mauled I then curled it up by the T and dug a new trench to where I wanted it to go. When the installers turned up(I already inforomed VM no cable present) I offered them a cup of Tea and £20 to go the extra mile and NOT splice the cable.
 
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Ad_Augendae said:
Looks like nearly the right colour compo, I see they left you a Nice Blowout where the cable comes through the wall.
In all seriousness, I'll keep this info in mind for my FTTP install. When we last had Virgin installed I pulled the old cable out the lawn which was mauled I then curled it up by the T and dug a new trench to where I wanted it to go. When the installers turned up(I already inforomed VM no cable present) I offered them a cup of Tea and £20 to go the extra mile and NOT spice the cable.
Click to expand...
Yeah unfortunately this is what happens with unsupervised installs. The young lad has blown loads of bricks with cable clips too, and gone the most bizarre route ever. I ask him to leave me loads on the fibre so I can route it, and he came to be gleefully explaining he'd left me 6 inches...........
 
Ad_Augendae said:
Looks like nearly the right colour compo, I see they left you a Nice Blowout where the cable comes through the wall.
In all seriousness, I'll keep this info in mind for my FTTP install. When we last had Virgin installed I pulled the old cable out the lawn which was mauled I then curled it up by the T and dug a new trench to where I wanted it to go. When the installers turned up(I already inforomed VM no cable present) I offered them a cup of Tea and £20 to go the extra mile and NOT splice the cable.
Click to expand...

dLockers said:
Yeah unfortunately this is what happens with unsupervised installs. The young lad has blown loads of bricks with cable clips too, and gone the most bizarre route ever. I ask him to leave me loads on the fibre so I can route it, and he came to be gleefully explaining he'd left me 6 inches...........
Click to expand...

I would wait till you see another fibre install going on and approach and ask for a re-splice, Humans are very pliable!
 
Caged said:
Cable clips on bricks aren't ever really a great idea, either an alternative fixing should be used like https://linianclip.co.uk/collections/nanoclip™ or pin plugs put into drilled holes before hammering the clips in. Unfortunately every provider wants to offer installation for "free" so you get the minimum.
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Or if your like us just leave in hanging with no clips because we just had the House repointed :)
 
Is the connection inside the house, the one that goes to the ONT, just a standard SC connector? Looks it from pics but I've never seen one in the flesh to be able to tell.

If so then in theory you could just run your own simplex single mode fibre cable with pre-terminated male/female ends on to wherever you need it to be. Though you'd have the problem of having to make holes big enough to pass the connectors through.
 
Phemo said:
Is the connection inside the house, the one that goes to the ONT, just a standard SC connector? Looks it from pics but I've never seen one in the flesh to be able to tell.

If so then in theory you could just run your own simplex single mode fibre cable with pre-terminated male/female ends on to wherever you need it to be. Though you'd have the problem of having to make holes big enough to pass the connectors through.
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Yeah I could do that but the problem statement is the drop from the telegraph pole itself. Just ran an ungodly route :(. In the house it's perfectly fine (y).
 
Sorry for the necrobump but I am wanting to do this as well. I just want to move the ONT box as the grey box outside is ok where it is.
The problem is I don't know if it's possible to disconnect the ONT and pull the fibre back outside with plug attached?
It's connected to the wall with some kind of white plug (see pic). It doesnt obviously come off but I am hesitant to put much force on it.
mz0CEhT.png
 
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