Contractors laying fibre for virgin without conduit

[Julian5577]

Contractors (Redburn) are currently laying fibre on our estate on behalf of virgin media but they're laying the fibre directly on the gravel in the trench without and conduit then packing more gravel hard on top with a compactor.

That surely can't be the way to protect the fibre? We've had barely functioning internet here since we moved in due to damaged copper cable, I'll be gutted if we get the same issue with fibre.

I wonder if the contractor has been paid to do a better job than they're bothering with. 

[Tudor · Accepted solution]

That’s not fibre, just a tube that the fibre is blown through. The fibre is only 1 or 2 mm thick. This is now how all new ones are done. 

[jb66]

I don't think you realise how thin a fibre is, that is conduit 

[Julian5577]

Apparently I don't! Thanks for the info.

I was aware the actual strands are thin but presumed they had a protective layer around them that would look like that, in addition to some sort of pipe/conduit.

I'm probably paranoid after 10+ years of begging open reach to fix a faulty copper line. I'm currently relying on mobile internet with a high gain antenna.

[Client62]

We are an RFoG area and the installation is similar here with the empty green blown fibre tubes in the ground under pavements and under roads. The green tubes are as tough as old boots, the short piece shown here is near impossible to bend.  When a customer places an order the tube is extended from the edge of the property to the home and then a new fibre is inserted ( from the street cabinet end to the house ).

The tube shown in the photo has an 8mm outside diameter with a 4mm bore. Tubes of this type run from the street cabinet to the edge of each property.

[Roger_Gooner]

Currently VM is using 12mm microduct for its XGS-PON installations between cabinets.

[Jonny-M]

Time will tell how durable microducts buried in the ground are, I can see situations where the ducts become damaged and because only one or two houses are affected they are just marked as unserviceable since the only way to fix a microduct is to dig it up. 

[Client62]

We are 150 meters from the VM service cabinet, microduct damage due to utility works would be easy to spot.

Microducts are very simple to repair, after that replacement fibres can be re-blown.

[Roger_Gooner]

The microducts are designed to be direct buried, and if there is serious damage the affected segment will be removed and after cleaning the ends of the remaining sections a replacement segment is spliced in. Usually this repair work is a lot less time-consuming than for conventional ducts of an HFC network.