What optical connector does Vodafone's Gigafast ONT use?

[No Name]

Hi all,

Having symmetric 500 Mbit Vodafone gigafast installed in December...

As I understand it, a box will be put on the outside wall with an
optical connector.

Then a optical patch cable is used to run from this box to a ONT
(Optical Network Terminator) powered up inside the house (typically in a
downstairs room).

Then an ethernet patch lead runs from the ONT to the Vodafone Router,
also powered up inside.

Now I'd rather put the ONT in my loft and connect that to my choice of
router.

However as I understand it, Voda Gigafast engineers will not install to
anything but a ground floor room plus we have COVID to consider so don't
want them spending lots of time in the house.

So What I want to do is buy a pre-made optical fibre with the correct
connectors at both ends that I can run from the outside box up to the
loft and say that I will put the ONT in my loft under UPS protection
(due to supporting an IP telphony solution) and then use the ethernet in
place from the loft to the lounge for the vodafone router to connect to
for initial setting up.

Then after they have gone, I will then switch to my router of choice
which is a Edgerouter with Unifi Wifi AP's

(my main motivations is to (a) avoid holes drilled into lounge from
outside annoying SWMBO and (b) to have the kit in the loft under UPS
protection rather than add to the kit already in the lounge also
annoying SWMBO!)

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I'm not so sure that a fibre cable that long for domestic use can be
purchased.
Brian

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[Andy Burns]

No Name wrote:

> a pre-made optical fibre with the correct connectors at both ends that I
> can run from the outside box up to the loft and say that I will put the
> ONT in my loft under UPS protection

I would say you need an SC/APC simplex fibre patch, e.g

<https://amazon.co.uk/FTTH/dp/B07MN3D3B1>

[Andy Burns]

Brian Gaff wrote:

> I'm not so sure that a fibre cable that long for domestic use can be
> purchased.

It's quite likely to have come tens of kilometers from the exchange,
another few tens of metres won't mack much difference.

[Owain Lastname]

On Tuesday, 24 November 2020 at 12:02:45 UTC, Andy Burns wrote:
> I would say you need an SC/APC simplex fibre patch, e.g
> <https://amazon.co.uk/FTTH/dp/B07MN3D3B1>

The Calix Gigapoint 801Gv2 manual says
Single 9/125 µm (single mode) fiber, SC/APC connector
https://tele-a.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/801Gv2_GP.pdf

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Considering-Gigafast-900Mbps-nominal/td-p/2626163# lists the type of ONT used as the above.

Owain

[No Name]

Thank you, thats a really helpful reply!

S.

[No Name]

On 24/11/2020 12:02, Andy Burns wrote:

Now what I need to work out is whether they use the existing BT
underground ducting that the BT copper tepehone wire comes through and
blow the fibre through there to the BT external box (City fibre have put
their street cabinets next to existing BT ducting so presumably have a
duct shairng arrangement with BT?)

or whether they actually run a new piece of ducting in my lawn from the
BT trunk/main ducting under the pavenment to the external wall box?

[Andy Burns]

No Name wrote:

> or whether they actually run a new piece of ducting in my lawn from the
> BT trunk/main ducting under the pavenment to the external wall box?

Hopefully BT do a better job than virgin did for next-door, dig under
garden wall from the box in the road, make slit across the lawn with a
half-moon edger and push the fibre down a couple of inches, the wife
nearly mowed it a few days later ...

[Dave Liquorice]

On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 11:48:47 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) wrote:

> I'm not so sure that a fibre cable that long for domestic use can be
> purchased.

As far as pre-terminated fibre cables are concerned it's almost "How
long would you like it sir?"

It is a bit of a minefield though between single mode and multimode
fibres and large array of connectors being in common use.

If access to the loft is good, ie a proper, sturdy, fixed to the
building, loft ladder not a rickety set of steps at the top of the
stairs and the loft has decent head room and is boarded out the
installers may respond well to to chocolate biscuits and tea/coffee
(outside, socially distanced)...

Strikes me as the sort of thing that google ought to cough up a
reasonable amont of infor and images about so you can get an idea of
what an installation looks like/involves. I've had a quick look and
it seems that the external box is probably a coax to fibre converter,
as this service is delivered over the existing coax network not FTTP.
Where does that get it's power from? The coax, maybe or from the
Virgin ONT in which case the cable from the ONT to external box is a
hybrid not pure fibre...

--
Cheers
Dave.

[Theo]

Dave Liquorice <allsortsn...@howhill.com> wrote:
> Strikes me as the sort of thing that google ought to cough up a
> reasonable amont of infor and images about so you can get an idea of
> what an installation looks like/involves.

The info is out there - although different providers do different things so
you need to look for your specific provider.

> I've had a quick look and it seems that the external box is probably a
> coax to fibre converter, as this service is delivered over the existing
> coax network not FTTP. Where does that get it's power from? The coax,
> maybe or from the Virgin ONT in which case the cable from the ONT to
> external box is a hybrid not pure fibre...

I'm not sure what you're on about there. The OP is Vodafone, not Virgin.
Nobody SFAIK runs coax in the street and fibre in the home - what would be
the point? Virgin's coax network terminates at a box on the side of the
house, but it's coax internally. Virgin's Project Lightning is FTTP, no
coax in the street.

Openreach cables have fibre + a copper pair. I don't think Lightning
carries coax as part of the bundle, but I can't check right now. Vodafone
don't have a coax network.

Theo

[Andy Burns]

Dave Liquorice wrote:

> I've had a quick look and
> it seems that the external box is probably a coax to fibre converter,
> as this service is delivered over the existing coax network not FTTP.

sounds unlikely.

Is the O/P in an openreach location, or a cityfibre location?

<https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/vodafone-gigafast-broadband-review#Gigafast_Towns_and_Cities>

[Andy Burns]

Theo wrote:

> The OP is Vodafone, not Virgin.
> Nobody SFAIK runs coax in the street and fibre in the home

IIRC the O/P is Northants based, if so the FTTH bit is provided by CityFibre

<https://www.cityfibre.com/products/fibre-to-the-home/consumer-ftth>

> Virgin's Project Lightning is FTTP, no
> coax in the street.

That's right we have Lightning in here (well I don't, but it's in the
street) there's nothing eletrical in the cabinet, just an incoming
bundle of fibres, a patch panel and outgoing tubes to the "toby" near
each house, a fibre gets get blown in your tube when you subscribe.

[No Name]

City Fibre location.....

City Fibre have installed streetside cabinets and dugs trenches and put
in ducting that links their cabinets to the existing BT ducting (BT put
this in after the pavements were tarmaced so thats how I know there is
some form of duct sharing in place.

Now I'm intrigued as to whether there is BT ducting from my house wall
to the pavement ducting or whether they will put in a Toby box from the
pavement ducting and run new ducting to my house wall.

[Andy Burns]

No Name wrote:

> I'm intrigued as to whether there is BT ducting from my house wall to
> the pavement ducting

When I had my drive re-done, I discovered the underground drop wire was
just shallow buried.

[No Name]

twas the same for my VM shotgun cable...... literally all of 4 inches
depth if that......

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I said, domestic cable. I'm not disputing the type used for the link, though
there are boosters at certain distances. However there are also connector
losses.

Brian

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[Andy Burns]

Brian Gaff wrote:

> I'm not disputing the type used for the link, though
> there are boosters at certain distances.

no boosters, it's a passive optical network, there's a splitter
somewhere between the exchange and the homes, but AIUI nothing
electronic at all, distance limit 50 to 60km I believe

> However there are also connector losses.

yes, maybe even a deliberate attenuator if the distance is short.

[John Walliker]

I recently had a fibre leased line installed at an office. The length was
a few km and the total upstream and downstream losses were
0.9 and 0.7dB including all splices and connectors. (Different
wavelengths of infra-red light are used for the two directions, hence
the difference in uplink and downlink losses.

As already mentioned, pre-terminated lengths of fibre for indoor use
(and variants for outdoor use and direct burial) are readily available at
low cost to order with a wide variety of connector types.
There are also lots of standard lengths available from stock.
I have bought 30m lengths of pre-terminated duplex single-mode fibre
from eBay for a few pounds.
You may be thinking of plastic fibre which is used for digital audio. This
has a much shorter maximum range than the glass fibre used for
internet provision.

John

[Kyorin]

They likely won't put it in your loft, but they will install to an upstairs room, or at least they did for me.

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[Kyorin]

If you have telegraph poles outside, they run it alongside your existing BT phone cable above ground to your house as far as I can tell.