Is FTTP (Fiber to the premises) really the future?

[Highway Man]

Pretty sure all BT's cabling is just ducted, if they make any branches they do it in the cabinets.

Anyway, the fact is they're getting billions from the stuff, so they must be pulling it out.

I am talking about outside, All cables are ducted none are just buried in the ground without ducting, we all have cabinets and pits that we terminate into, but when traffic accidents occur or new roads go in you have to joint underground and break into the main pits and ducting, that then prevents you from pulling what was originally one piece of cable is now multiple joints and branches. Anyways regardless, we don't pull any cables out we simply replace them with new.

 

[Highway Man]

Here is an example of a brand new install of fibres going in including new pits in the ground. At this stage we can pull cables in and out way enough. Note the orange ducting.

 

[Highway Man]

Here is one of the puts we use. As can be seen all good so far.

 

[Highway Man]

Then this happens further up the road.

 

[Highway Man]

These over the years along the length of the cables or fibres are repairs we have to make by breaking into the ducting and jointing or pot ending along the entirety of the cable thus preventing being able to pull the cable out of the ducting, this is happening all over the place and why we simply leave the original cables in as they would require too much excavation to pull out. Any that can come out is easily pulled out but generally left as although the cables are worth money the labour of getting them would be as costly as the cable itself. Certainly in substations and exchanges the cable would be worth a lot and is easily removed then these will get recycled and sold.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

and exchanges the cable would be worth a lot and is easily removed then these will get recycled and sold.

The scrapping of exchange equipment, racks of electro-mechanical, swapped for electronics, was busy from the 1980's. I'm surprised by the claims that there is much left to scrap.

 

[Highway Man]

The scrapping of exchange equipment, racks of electro-mechanical, swapped for electronics, was busy from the 1980's. I'm surprised by the claims that there is much left to scrap.

Still a lot of copper left being replaced by fibres now Harry, the old T1 lines etc. In the future we will be recycling the fibres for the glass maybe?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

In the future we will be recycling the fibres for the glass maybe?

Unlikely, there is an abundance of that resource around

 

[Brigadier]

They'll leave the copper where it is, until it becomes economically worthwhile or necessary to salvage it.

It'll sit on a balance sheet somewhere as an asset.

Like the exchanges which, albeit now technologically unnecessary in their current guise (miniaturisation of the electronics making the buildings much larger than needed) are often extremely valuable for their land value alone.

 

[Diver Fred]

Now here is a question (or 2)...
It's many years since I finished working on the PSTN (and number 'routing') so I don't know the answer to the but I do wonder if someone in the collective knowledge has an idea.
I see that with the shift to 'Digital Voice' and speech calls carried on the internet network that the number of physical Exchanges being drastically reduced I see that some exchange number ranges are being served by other exchanges (e.g. Lutterworth BT numbers (Hinkley area code numbers) will be served by Rugby exchange. What I'd like to know is will there become much more number flexibility in where a landline number is available? e.g. an Ipswich number (01473 xx xx xx) being made available in, say, Southampton (without call diversion).

Thoughts?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

What I'd like to know is will there become much more number flexibility in where a landline number is available? e.g. an Ipswich number (01473 xx xx xx) being made available in, say, Southampton (without call diversion).

I'll make a guess... The phone, is translated to an IP, where it passes over the Internet, so the phone number can be absolutely anywhere in the world. Remember, we keep getting scam callers, presenting phone numbers, often apparently local ones to where you are, but in fact they might be the other side of the world.

 

[IT Minion]

I'll make a guess... The phone, is translated to an IP, where it passes over the Internet, so the phone number can be absolutely anywhere in the world. Remember, we keep getting scam callers, presenting phone numbers, often apparently local ones to where you are, but in fact they might be the other side of the world.

I believe the old number gets registered to the VOIP company end point for that exchange (so the old routing systems still work) and from there gets sent to wherever over the internet.

 

[Peter500]

I'm surprised that they didn't attach the fiber to the end of my copper cable and pull it through with the copper. They used a Cobra, which seems like more work to me

 

[Peter500]

Copper, for a normal phone line, is no longer an option.


Only the ONT, to router seems delicate. I happened to have a cut off sample left, from my install, and see nowt delicate about the outer section. Copper is also a fairly limited speed option, and each year, customers are demanding more and more bandwidth - simple with fibre, not so easy with copper, which began with 300bps, and maxed out at 20Mbps for many people.

Well that's not true as Virgin Media still use copper (coax). From what I can tell, the Virgin Media tech (DOCSIS) can currently reach approx. 2Gb, but potentially reach 10Gb in future. It also depends what you mean by a 'normal' phone line, as you can't have a 'normal' phone line on fiber either.

It sounds like power consumption may be the reason for switching and interference may also be a reason. My Virgin Media connection was always a consistent speed though.

 

[IT Minion]

The limit on data transfer through a medium is defined by noise. It's not an intuitive rule but it makes sense when you dig into it.

Coax is sheiled to reduce noise so it gets better transfer rates than simple twisted pair wire.