Installation

[derekheeps]

I moved to this house three weeks ago and just ordered M200 fibre broadband last night ( installation date for 3rd June ) , also got a message that a pre-installation team would come sometime before then and I needn't be in .

My house is semi-detached and I have a space down the side of the house which will be made into a driveway . Thing is , my home office area is at the rear of the property so that's where I'd want the cable brought in ( the old telephone line , TV aerials and Satellite dish cables all come in there ) and that is where my comms cabinet is - I don't want cables run internally from front to back , but there seems no process for me to let them know where I want the cables brought in , nor will they know my internal layout . 

How do I ensure the cable entry box is put where I want it ? Although slightly further from the roadway , it is a simple route down the side of the house and round the back .

[jem101]

I wouldn’t be too concerned by this, the pre-install team will run the cable from the street to an Omnibox which almost certainly be on the outside front wall of your house.

Now when the installation person arrives on 3rd, they will run a cable from this box into the house wherever you need it to be (within reason) and it you are there, you will certainly be able to point out where you want this to enter the house. It sounds as if it will be far easier to run the cable externally around the house to the back and go in there, ie one hole needing to be drilled through a wall rather than many through internal walls - I’m sure the installer will be delighted to have an easier and quicker job

[derekheeps]

Actually , it should be even more straightforward than that !

When I got home yesterday , I noted there is a Virgin plate cover on the footpath , right at the boundary between my house and my neighbour's ( other half of the semi-detached ) . Running down the boundary fence from there leads to the front window of my living room , below which there is an air vent into the underfloor void . At the back of the house , there is another air vent in line with the front one . So there 'may' be a path directly under the floor , almost to where I want it ; I will get my cable pulling rods out and see if I can feed them from front to back and put in a draw wire . I would have preferred fibre to as close as possible to where I want the feed , but accept that it really won't make that big a difference . I'm working from home today ( still using my mobile to create a hotspot for now - hurrah for unlimited data ! ) so might have a go this afternoon .

At the back , where I have set up my home office , there are already holes drilled for Satellite ( shotgun cable ) , TV aerial , and landline . Since I require none of these services ( I don't have and don't want a TV set ) I'm going to cut and pull out these cables ; the hole vacated by the satellite cable ought to be sufficient for the installer to feed his cable in , so no new holes need to be drilled  .

The only external feed I will be requiring is an aerial for my FM tuner ( I like my music ) and I will be putting up at least an 8 element beam with a rotator when I get round to it , to get noise free reception from some of the more distant/lower output stations .

All these things take time .

[-tony-]

fibre may be a term used but unless you are in a new fibre area then the cable from the cabinet to the external box will be coax as will any internal wiring

the cable to the main cabinet in your area will be fibre but it ends there

if you are in a fibre area then that will terminate at the external box and [again] coax from there - whether that box is on the front wall or back will make no difference to the connection

[derekheeps]

Hi Tony , I have been informed that my connection is to be fibre to the building ( FTTB ) , not FTTC . I would therefore have expected fibre to the box on the wall of my house ?

[-tony-]

FTTB is fibre to the building which is then split and run to individual installs within the building - thats not FTTP fibre to the premises which is individual fibre runs to each outlet so i am a little confused 

but afaik whichever it is the fibre terminates at the wall box and then goes to coax - the fibre is in its own tube to the connection point so not sure they would want to pull that under the floor

all to discuss on the day i guess

[derekheeps]

Just looked back at my online chat , from when i was placing the order , both expressions FTTB and FTTP were used . 

I know there will be no significant difference between having 30 odd feet of coax vs 5 or so feet . Wi-fi is also unimportant to me as most of my devices will be connected by Gigabit ethernet .

Download speed is not desperately vital , other than I work in photography and video production , so I sometimes want to upload fairly large files ( in the range of several Gb ) to sharing services , hence I want a decent upload speed .

[Travis_M · Accepted solution]

Hi @derekheeps

Thanks for posting on our community forum

It seems as though our very helpful forum users have answered more-a-less everything here, is there anything else that you would need answering by ourselves? 🙂

Regards

[derekheeps]

Not at present .

Just this morning , I had a phone call from a very helpful gentleman , offering me installation on Monday !

I replied that no pre-installation work had been carried out so far , and he replied that they were trying out a new process where pre-installation and the actual installation would all be carried out at the same time . While this sounded great , I had to say that I would be unable to be home on Monday , due to a work comittment and that I remain content to wait until 3rd June , which really isn't far away .

I was offered the chance to call him back when I can see my work diary and still get an earlier date , but with a colleague on holiday until the 28th , for whom I am covering , it isn't really convenient to book time off before then . Also , I like my direct debits to come off at the beginning of each month , after I have just been paid ; perhaps there is a way round this , but I presume by having my account activated on the 3rd , the direct debits will then be taken at that time each month - or do I get a choice in this matter - if need be by making a one-off payment to move the date to whenever I want it .

Anyway , given my installation isn't far away , I'd hope this thread can remain open until it has been completed , and I hope to be able to post back with some positive comments , and photos if relevant .

It was wet earlier , but has now dried up outside , so I'm going to see if I can get my rods through the underfloor void and pull in a draw wire for the co-ax . This will also help me determine before I cut holes in my living room floor to put in floor ports for speaker , power , line and Cat5e cables to avoid having them seen snaking around the room ; if there are underfloor obstacles , I won't be drilling any holes needlessly . 

I hope to remain a regular contributor on the forum and share my experiences with others . 

[Serena_C]

Hi @derekheeps

Thanks for letting us know 🙂 If there's anything else you need please do give us a shout!

Thanks for the update regarding your installation, please do keep us posted on how it all goes - we will keep the thread active.

Kind regards,

Serena