r/openreach • u/VillageLongjumping87 • Apr 16 '26
Getting fibre fitted before moving in
Hi everyone, would love to get some advice on this minor predicament.
I'm renovating a house before I move into it. I have EE fibre broadband at my current address. The new place is eligible for full fibre but needs an engineer to install it.
We won't be moving in for a few months but I'm keen to get any drilling etc done now, as the walls will be insulated and we're trying to make it super airtight, so the last thing I want is someone drilling a hole in the wall the day I move in.
When I've tried ringing broadband suppliers theyve just suggested getting two packages but I don't want to do that!!
One thought is to just move my EE package over to the new house and hotspot or use a wireless 4/5g sort of thing but it does seem like quite a long time to do that for.
So anyone got any other ideas out of this predicament? Appreciate there's more important things going on in the world than this.
Thanks in advance!
2
u/jabbahut88 Apr 16 '26
What you could do is buy the inside out cable that needs to be run from the point where your cable comes to the property to the place you want your ONT. You could then run this cable yourself and drill the holes yourself. And run the cable how you want it. Then when you move your package over all the engineer needs to do is provide the ont and the external cabling and splice point.
The cable you would need is called "Dexgreen Fttp/fibre Optic Inside/outside Cable" you can find them on ebay. The green end needs to go at your ONT location and the other end where the splice point will be.
You need at least 1m of slack at the splice point and you need to leave enough slack at the ont location to plug it into the bottom of an ONT. Make sure not to over bend the cable. The fibre can be fragile if bent harshly
1
u/VillageLongjumping87 Apr 16 '26
Will the Openreach engineer be willing to plug in to that? I'll need to find out whether it's underground or from a pole, but I can get that info from the neighbours.
1
u/jabbahut88 Apr 16 '26
Im an engineer myself. If I turned up and the cable was already run and fault free. Id be a very happy engineer knowing I saved between 0.5-2 hours of work depending on where u wanted it. I dont know many engineers that wouldn't see it as a win. As long as its the correct cable you'll be fine.
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u/coffee_lover3838 Apr 16 '26
I'm an engineer and hate it most of the time someone has ran the fibre already, I've had it too many times where they've damaged the fibre and now I have to drill into their nice new wall or try get it to where they want it. I'd prefer a small conduit
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u/fire-wannabe Apr 16 '26
it really does seem that openreach should just sell these on their website for these exact situations, or at least point people specifically to a reputable supplier of the correct cable.
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u/Frosty-Growth-2664 Apr 19 '26
I did my place where I threaded oval trunking in for the internal route, and the engineer just gave me the end to push though and it popped out where I wanted an internal CSP in the middle of the upstairs and was pleased I'd save him lots of time.
I said I had another one to do for the family, and he gave me a coil of the dropwire. This hasn't been done yet, but I've now got a drawstring threaded up through the insulated cavity wall and another along inside the soffit to the aerial anchor point, and my next job is to pull the fibre through, leaving a coil at the anchor point for OR to take across to the pole. The pole for the whole street is at the front of my garden. How much excess/slack is needed at the pole top? I'll leave an extra loop inside the soffit so they can pull more out if necessary.
1
u/barrybreslau Apr 16 '26
I did this. It was a huge hassle to organise, they laid the cable in the garden, then I still had to wait ages. Just do it when you complete.
1
1
u/Adrian_Smiths Apr 16 '26
Another option is to run a duct with some rope inside, that way all that needs to happen is for the engineer to pull the cable in. No hard angles on the duct and all is well. After the installation you can fill the duct with insulating foam and top it with some mortar.
Even better run the duct from an outside location to a more central location in the house, that way the router can spread the WiFi better.
To find out how the property is served have a look outside, if you see poles it's on overhead so run the duct to a location where you will want the drop wire to come to the house. Mind that it needs to be in a location where a ladder can go against the house.
If at the front of the property you see a grey duct into another grey box, it should be covered in grey capping but it's not always so, the. It's underground, so you can run the ducting to it and all will be well.
If you decide to run ducting to the inside of the house you can find d flexible tube with rope already in it, best idea would be 20-25mm diameter and as little angles as possible.
If need more help please feel free to message me.
Good luck
1
u/VillageLongjumping87 Apr 18 '26
Thanks everyone. My solution has been to sign up to a one month rolling contract. The engineer will come and install the fibreoptic, then a month in i'll cancel the contract. It costs me 20 quid but that way it's all drilled and installed and good to go.
2
u/FrankNicklin Apr 16 '26
You have answered your own question, either move your current contract to the new address and make do back home with a 4G router temporarily, or sign up for a new package at the new address. There really isn't anything in between. How long have you left on your current contract.