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Infrastructure provider Openreach has begun trials of a new method of installing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) cabling that could be cheaper and faster to deploy than traditional methods.
Known as 'micro ducting', the process is similar to the existing 'micro trenching' method of laying communications cabling, and involves digging a shallow, narrow trench at speed for new cables, ISPReview.co.uk reports.
The tests are taking place at Armstrong Avenue in Exeter and are intended to determine whether it would be a practical solution to deliver full fibre connectivity to properties that are currently only served by underground copper cabling.
A letter sent by Openreach to residents stated: "These works will involve excavating a small trench along the pavements and installing a micro duct and a small access box (the size of a water meter cover). All work will be completed in small sections to minimise impact and will be carried out by a specialist Openreach team."
If successful, it could serve as a blueprint for fibre rollouts on a much wider scale and greatly decrease the time it takes to upgrade existing premises to FTTP technology.
With standard micro trenching solutions, the specialist equipment used can allow engineers to complete between 150 and 200 metres of cabling installations a day, compared with a maximum of 50 metres for normal installation methods, while the adapted and improved micro ducting could extend this even further.
Micro trenching is also much cheaper, at £10 to £15 per metre, than traditional civil engineering processes, which can cost £75 to £125 per metre. At this stage though, we don’t have any comparative costs for micro ducting.
Improving the reach of the UK's full fibre network is to be a top priority for both the industry and government in the coming years. According to recent figures from BT Group, Openreach's FTTP deployments now reach around 900,000 properties, but the firm has a goal of extending this to up to ten million by 2025.
