BT Infinity Cabinet Install

[weesteev]

For those of you not lucky enough to be in a FTTC area, here are a few pictures of the process to show you whats involved...

The first and third pictures show the VDSL cabinet used by BT to deploy its "Infinity" product, in comparison to picture 2 you can see the variation in design and size between a standard size junction box and the new design. Finally, the base under construction is shown in the fourth picture with different duct access points for the power, fibre and cross connect to the nearby existing cabinet.

Hope this is useful!

[Tricky]

look at the vandalism on the old cab, install Infinity in my street we have no writing on our cabinet so it would look newer for longer? - O well 30/03/2012 is my date then!

[Rob]

So much for smaller technology making more fit into less.

[Graham M]

Originally Posted by Rob

So much for smaller technology making more fit into less.

To be fair, the old cabinet had much different tech in though

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by Tricky

look at the vandalism on the old cab, install Infinity in my street we have no writing on our cabinet so it would look newer for longer? - O well 30/03/2012 is my date then!

Patience is a virtue

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Graham M

To be fair, the old cabinet had much different tech in though

The old cabinet had no tech in it in most cases, it was just a patch panel. Bit different from a cabinet with a VDSL 2 MSAN, optical backhaul, filtering and patching kit, along with cooling for all this goodness.

Crazy really pushing all that active hardware out into the field, ah well.

[Graham M]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

The old cabinet had no tech in it in most cases

Point proven

[qasdfdsaq]

Yeah, it'd be more fair to compare the new cabinets with an exchange...

[weesteev]

So today we had 2 new Infinity cabinets installed on our street, but smaller than the existing build cabinets in the Infinity rollout. We had 2 cabinets feeding our street and both are replaced by one each of these new style VDSL cabinets. They havent been connected yet, just the chassis put on place. They are about 18 inches shorter but about 6 inches deeper than existing Infinity cabinets. They also have a side opening panel for access as well as the front.

[dazzer89]

BT have been pulling cables yesterday and this morning near where I live, there have also been new street boxes popping up all over the place.

Looks like it's coming round here.

[weesteev]

Originally Posted by dazzer89

BT have been pulling cables yesterday and this morning near where I live, there have also been new street boxes popping up all over the place.

Looks like it's coming round here.

Have you noticed if the cabinets being fitted are the big ones like my first pictures or smaller ones like the second.

I haven't seen these new small cabinets anywhere else yet.

[ichilton]

Hi,

How long is it between the exchange getting enabled (ours is on the list for June 2011) and the cabinets getting put in (which I assume is when you can then actually order it?)?

Does anyone have any information on how Infinity works? - do they just use the existing phone lines and ADSL type technology to the house, but instead of communicating direct to the exchange, it's only between the house and the cabinet and from there it's fibre all the way back to the exchange?

Thanks,

Ian

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by ichilton

Hi,

How long is it between the exchange getting enabled (ours is on the list for June 2011) and the cabinets getting put in (which I assume is when you can then actually order it?)?

Does anyone have any information on how Infinity works? - do they just use the existing phone lines and ADSL type technology to the house, but instead of communicating direct to the exchange, it's only between the house and the cabinet and from there it's fibre all the way back to the exchange?

Thanks,

Ian

you will be able to order once July rolls around. The service uses your copper telephone line from your premises to the FTTC Cab, then Fibe from there.

[weesteev]

Originally Posted by MadGamer

you will be able to order once July rolls around. The service uses your copper telephone line from your premises to the FTTC Cab, then Fibe from there.

Correct

The Infinty cabinets contain DSLAM equipment similar (but more modern) that is found in your telephone exchange. These cabinets are connected by Fibre back to the exchange and then cross connected to an existing BT cabinet to provide Telephony services.

The existing twisted pair copper phone line to your home is utilised and the broadband VDSL service runs from your home to the VDSL cabinet and onto the DSLAM back to the exchange (and then onto the core BT network), whereas your phone line is still terminated in the original cabinet so your calls will be routed over your standard phone line back to the Infinity cabinet then crossed over to the E side in the old cabinet and back to the exchange over the original multi pair copper cable.

The time period from build to order can vary depending if your area has been announced or not. My area has been fully built but still not announced whereas some areas around me are announced for later this summer but still not built...

HTH

[ichilton]

Hi,

Thanks! - that was the kind of information I was looking for.

Am I correct in reading that they install both a modem and a separate router?

What's the loss in the copper between the premises and cabinet then? - are the 40mb/10mb speeds pretty achievable on an average length street?

Thanks,

Ian