BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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!

:)

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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!

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

So much for smaller technology making more fit into less.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Patience is a virtue ;)

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Point proven :D

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

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

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

They install both a router and separate modem. Your master socket gets replaced by an Infinity NTE5 Master Socket, which has a filter built into it. Speed wise depends on line length, Line quality, and distance from the street cabinet

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

ok, thanks.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Best infinity line speed ive seen is about 39mbps, worst about 8mbps. All depends on your line quality.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Where I live we have a revised date of 31/12/11 for infinity and yesterday about a mile away notice that finally the plinth and ducts have been installed (as first photograph) for the VDSL cabinet. The word 'dslam' had been sprayed on the footpath since June!

What I would like to know is that does every existing street cabinet require a VDSL cabinet or can one VDSL cabinet serve several existing street cabinets? The reason I ask is further down the road is 'our cabinet' and there is no sign of a new cabinet popping up around it. Exploratory work has been done because other services have been identified by markings on the footpath.

Also do BT bring the fibre from the exchange separetely to each cabinet or run a multifibre cable to an area and then off to each VDSL cabinet (our exchange is nearly 3 miles away)!

Thanks,

Tony

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

These Infinity cabinets are only cross connected to primary splice cabinets. Some street cabinets on BT's network can act as an extension to a primary cabinet so wont have the need for a VDSL cabinet. BT are generally only fitting these new cabinets in areas where there is a high penetration of customers, not every cabinets in a connected exchange area will receive service.

I have family living next to a VDSL cabinet but also very close to the exchange. Their phone line is directly connected to the exchange and not to the street cabinet so they cannot get infinity... some great Telecomms planning that!

Each cabinet has a mutipair blown fibre trunk connected back to the headend and are fed by a single fibre. The blown fibre duct allows for more fibre to connected in future as the technology changes and demand increases.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Thanks Weesteev,

Obviously I was being impatient as yesterday when I went out they have now started the groundwork for a VDSL cabinet next to 'our street cabinet', and the other site now has a VDSL cabinet in-place.

Thanks for the information re the configuration of the cabinets/ exchange etc. Am I right to assume the biggest task will be getting the fibre from the exchange to 'our' cabinet? What is the normal timeframe for then integrating this within BT's network once all the equipment is in place and live?

At the moment BT's website states 31st December 2011 as available is this likely to slip or be brought forward?

Cheers, and thanks for the reply

Tony

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Now, now, when the network was built it was all exchange based so as few PCPs as possible would have been the ideal :)

Reading through this PDF BT are using two different cabinets, there's a 288 line variant and a 128 line variant so they are using the 128 line cabinets in lower density areas.

BT are doing infill of cabinets in some exchanges, using a combination of the 288 and 128 line cabinets, there are 'rumours' that BT will deploy FTTP to exchange only lines.

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 ----------

I'll dive in here. Getting the fibre to the cabinet is usually easy, the power is a bit trickier but shouldn't be a problem. Chances are it'll be a bit before 31st December as Openreach won't have people working on civils around Christmas so much.

The date given is a timeline for when a certain percentage of cabinets will be ready by not an absolute date where they'll switch them all on on the 31st.

You should hear your cabinet start to hum when power is plugged in, then once the exchange is ready you're good to go - keep an eye on things and maybe give BT or whoever you want to take the service from a call after the cabinet has been powered for a couple of weeks.

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Thanks Ignitionnet

That filled in more gaps in my knowledge and thanks for the tips re listening out etc. By the way the pdf you refered to is that in the public domain?

Thanks

Tony

Re: BT Infinity Cabinet Install
 

Spot on Igni, when it comes to power, Telcos are at the mercy of the local power network and some of them have unreal timescales for processing new connections. Once the cabinets are in place you will find a few weeks/months later that the power utility will come along and dig up again to provide a power connection to the cab then BT will come back and activate the cabinet.

As for cabinets, 228 line shell is in my first pictures and the 128 line is in the second pictures.

:)