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With the push on for Gigabit Britain in full throttle It’s little surprise that there’s the odd report of capacity problems on poles hampering deployments. An issue which may become a larger one as FTTP expands.
Such capacity issues can be due to pole load - there are limits on how many wires a pole can hold or merely a port capacity issue in the Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT) which is used in both aerial and underground applications.
Pole Loading
Pole loading issues can sometimes be resolved by removing copper dropwires as fibre drops are added or a pole swap to increase the total number of dropwires permitted. Both are generally preferable to adding completely new poles into an area and having to reroute all drops.
CBT Capacity
CBTs, available in 4 port, 8 port and 12 port variants, located on the top of a telephone pole (or within a chamber in the ground) may be full due to the higher than forecast take up on FTTP via that CBT. Sometimes this is due to houses being converted into flats turning one planned connection into 2, 3, 4 or more connections. Likewise new builds routing via the same CBT.
The Solution
A proactive Openreach policy review shared with PIA ISPs recently will see them adopt a more flexible, risk-based approach to handling pole capacity. Plus an option to lower steps on poles to leave more space available at the top of pole for CBTs whilst still enabling engineers to climb safely. A new PIA accreditation will also allow altnets, with suitably qualified engineers, to implement this for their own deployments.
For Connectorised Block Terminals and Drop Cables please click here
View our FTTX Engineering Catalogue online here or request a printed copy here
