October 2024
Broadband (Internet) connections are rapidly geting better, faster and more reliable. This is mainly due to BT / Openreach having made the decision to become a “Fibre Network” and to get rid of the old copper wires and equipment. PSTN (land lines) will hopefully be switched off by 2027 (new date).
BT are currently upgrading their network to use Fibre (Optical Fibre Cables) at a fairly rapid pace, with the aim of getting rid of old equipment and copper cables because this will allow a more robust and reliable network along with lower operating costs. Hopefully the cost savings will be passed on to customers but I won’t hold my breath 🙂 The massive investment and costs would need to be recovered before cost savings are passed on to customers.
The BT / Openreach upgrade started a few years ago, around 2009 and involved replacing “Trunk Cables” with Fibre. This was a massive task. Alongside this, BT introduced FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which, in principle, brought the Exchange to the Street corner and this made ADSL redundant but is still in use. FTTC allows up to about 80Mb download speed (theoretical) where as ADSL was around the 16Mb mark – depending on how from the exchange your premises are. FTTC will probably still be around for a number of years but will eventually become FTTP.
FTTC is known as “Part Fibre” because the cabinet is connected back to the “Exchange” using Fibre and then uses copper cables to the premises.
BT have now completed most of the work needed to provide FTTP (Full Fibre) and are now hoping that people will start using FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) a.k.a Full Fibre, by preferance. In most cases it only needs a fibre cable running from the “Pole” to replace the copper wire. New Housing has had for a few years underground cables.
Full Fibre connections can provide download / connection speeds of WOW! Starting at usually 100Mb. Others are 300Mb, 500Mb and upto 1Gb and more in some cases. Full Fibre is a game changer and like all (modern) Internet connections needs a ROUTER. It is likely that your current Router will need replacing to make sure it can use the Fibre Network.
The ROUTER supplied by your ISP for FTTC connections has for a few years been designed to enable your Land Line phone to be connected to it as part of the PSTN switch off work. This means voice calls are routed through the Internet via the router.
This won’t change with Full Fibre but some ISPs are still wanting to charge for a land line if you want to use a phone. This doesn’t seem to make any sense because the same (fibre) cable is used for voice and data. However, voice calls need a unique phone number so additional kit would be needed. Internet access for data is simpler.
Connection to the premises (relevant to BT via a “Telegraph Pole”) – Virgin is different, mostly underground cables
With copper wire connections, you could (normally) choose where the Wire came into the premises from the Pole and then have extensions to place the Master Socket in the room of your choice and have additional phone points. Full Fibre has additional kit and you need to connect the router to this new kit called ONT (Optical Network Terminal) see here and here. The siting of the external ONT will usually be limited to a “Line of sight” with the pole and that could mean that the siting of the internal ONT might not be where you would find it most convenient.
Router placement is one of the decisions you need to make. This can affect where or be affected by the position of the ONT.
- If you are intending to keep using your landline phone, it might need some extra wiring / cabling to connect it to the router. You could use a cordless phone system and just have the base station near the router.
- If you are intending making use of the built-in WiFi of the router, ideally the router needs to be placed centrally within the premises so that you can connect to the WiFi from any room in the house. You could use extra WiFi WAPs (Wireless Access Points).
- If you are intending connecting your Desktop PC to the router using an Ethernet cable it needs to be near the router. This is possibly going to be the biggest hurdle because the router needs an Ethernet connection to the ONT.
Just considering those 3 options will likely mean you will have to compromise on something but router placement will be the biggy and will often need some cabling work to connect the router to the ONT.
Full Fibre connections to the premises (from Pole).
The Fibre connection to the premises will always be to an external wall and normally requires connecting to the premises on a “Line of Sight” basis, often at the front of the premises and sometimes to the side. The Openreach (OR) engineer will try to make the connection to the premises as convenient as possible but is restricted. It is very unlikely that the Fibre will be clipped to the outside wall to enable the ONT to be installed at the rear of the premises or vice versa. This is mainly due to Fibre not being as robust as copper but if the Fibre can be installed in conduit / trunking and easily pulled through, the OR engineer might be willing to make use of the conduit to allow the convenient siting of the ONT on the inside of the premises.
Keep in mind that Full Fibre needs a box on the outside wall and the ONT on the inside wall. If you are lucky, the OR Engineer will place the ONT on the external wall of a room in which you are going to site the router. In most cases this will probably not be the case and you will then need to run an Ethernet cable from the ONT to the Router.
The siting of the ONT and positioning of the router needs some thought. In most cases, the siting of the ONT has limited options. If you intend to connect all of your devices (Desktop, Laptop, Tablet) to the router using WiFi, you shouldn’t have many problems.
The use of “Homeplug” (Ethernet over Mains) is an option to connect the router to the ONT. “Homeplug” is awesome and works very well when using between the router and a “device” but IMO, using “Homeplug” between the router and ONT is asking a lot for “homeplug”. The connection between the router and the ONT is the main connection that carries all of the data traffic between router and ONT so it needs to robust and reliable.
An Ethernet cable between the router and ONT is the most robust and reliable method.
FTTP (Full Fibre) is the future. In this modern world we are becoming more and more relient on robust and reliable connections to the Internet and Fibre will eventually replace copper cables where possible.
The ROUTER a.k.a Internet Gateway is the “KINGPIN“, this is the device that gives you use of WiFi, Ethernet, Telephony and some case TV and other services. The Fibre cable just gives you a reliable and robust link to the Internet (an Infrastructure).
The router needs to be sited where it will serve the best use and will be connected to the ONT using Ethernet. All of the devices that you use in the home could use WiFi to connect to the router and you can install WiFi boosters or additional WAPs.
Real world example of Full Fibre.
My house originally had a copper cable from a telegraph pole a few metres away. The master phone socket was in the hall at the bottom of the stairs. Along came Broadband and the line was converted to ADSL. I had a copper cable installed to allow the Master socket to be in a room at the back of the house so that I could connect the router and this allowed the use of FTTC.
Along came Full Fibre and the ONT was installed inside a room at the front of the property. This means I had to run an Ethernet cable under the floorboards to the room at the back of the house to allow me to connect the Router to the ONT (using Ethernet). Fortunately the siting of the router gives WiFi coverage to all parts of the house
Full Fibre is awesome and is the future but you need to make sure that the ONT and Router are sited to give you the best options. Get it right and you will enjoy the awesome connection speeds that are on offer. Voice, Data, TV and maybe other services ALL using the fibre cable.
The Fibre cable will be the property of BT / Openreach and you will still have to use an ISP (along with their supplied Router) to use the cable. You can start with the “Fibre 100” and increase this to “Fibre 300” or “Fibre 500” etc by giving your ISP more money but with no change of cable!
Note about Virgin Media.
Virgin have their own infrastructure. The street cabinets are connected using Fibre, back to Virgin premises. The cable from the cabinet to the premesis is usually a mix of copper and Co-ax. This means that Virgin can provide connections of upto 1Gb and more without using FTTP. In principal, you don’t really need FTTP if you have a standard Virgin Media setup.
Virgin are offering FTTP, mainly to new house builds and will use an ONT similar to BT / Openreach.
At some point the Virgin Infrastructure / network needs to access the BT / Openreach Infrastructure to give access to the “Internet” as a whole.
New house builds that are “Internet Friendly” will incorporate a “Comms” cupboard (or similar) where the ONT is placed and all rooms in the house will have a “Network point”, this will allow the router to be placed in the optimum position