Expand the cable network

[andrew_wallasey]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew of any plans to extend the ntl network in the north west. I am interested in the Wirral because there are huge pockets where there is no cable laid and I have a lot of friends which would like to switch to ntl.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Chris W]

have a guess how much cable rollout costs per metre?

[Derek]

Lots and lots

Am I close?

[Pierre]

when I was involved in building networks the cost was represented as cost per property.

eg a row of terraced houses was a low cost per property about a £150 per house. But once you got out into the suburbs with their big houses and even bigger gardens the cost per property could go well into the thousands .

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by dezzo

Lots and lots

am I close?

they will have to install new cabs, run cabling through the whole street, from the nearest pipe as well, pay the workers to do it, pay the council to dig up the road, possible upgrade ubrs to support it...

the list goes on.

I have heard figures of around £10000 per metre to lay fibre optic, and £3000 to lay standard coax. These may be a little high, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were right.

MB

[Pierre]

£10,000 a meter is a bit too high

On avg (as differnent contractors have different rates around the country)

eg For fibre optic.

to excavate a 4way duct in the f/w = £37 per m
the tee to each property £ 22 per no.
To backfill the trench = £13 per m2
to tarmac the trench = £27 per m

to pull in a large fibre optic = £0.65 per m
Large fibre optic cable costs = £4.50 per m
to joint a large fibre optic cost = £2000 per joint
To build and activate a cab = up to £1100 (depending of size of cab)
F/w chambers up to £900 depending on size of chamber

[mmm]

Well BT seem to think it is £50k per m

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/c...re/3701467.stm

They claim elsewhere they had to replace 2km!

[andrew_wallasey]

I never thought it was cheap or an easy job. I was asking if there was ever any dicussion of plans to extend the network. Surely over the years they get there money back, if there is demand for service.

There are areas around here which made no commercial sense to have cable laid in. Some houses in areas with cable have driveways so long you would need an RG11 pull even if the cab was on the road outside your house.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by mmm

Well BT seem to think it is £50k per m

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/c...re/3701467.stm

They claim elsewhere they had to replace 2km!

That's different, they were responding to a damage and there could be all kinds of other costs related to it that pushes it up to £25,000 . Fibre optic usually is laid in 2km sections and when it is damaged the whole 2km is usually replaced so as not to increase the attenuation on the span.

I never thought it was cheap or an easy job. I was asking if there was ever any dicussion of plans to extend the network. Surely over the years they get there money back, if there is demand for service.

There are areas around here which made no commercial sense to have cable laid in. Some houses in areas with cable have driveways so long you would need an RG11 pull even if the cab was on the road outside your house.

Generally speaking there has been no major build in the industry for the best part of 4 years. The industry has concentrated increasing revenues by upselling to exisiting customers.

It is unlikely that any new build would be green lit until ntl and telewest have merged and then only if there is a major cash injection. When ntl/telewest merge it will cost a lot of money to link the two networks (you only have to look at the problems with legacy ntl and CoCo)

Basically if your not in a built area now I wouldnot envisage you getting service for several more years - if at all.

[themelon]

What I dont get is surely the cheapest time for ntl to lay the cable is when the houses are being built. I have looked a several new houses in Stoke On Trent to move into, some not even fully finished but NONE of these properties are cabled.

This is a major problem for me, it would mean moving back to Sky and BT and quite frankly I would rather gouge my eyes out with spoons than put up with that pitiful lot again....but these are nice houses ive seen about 5 estates springing up in the SOT area none have cable. All of these estates are about 10 metres or less from a cabled street as Stoke is prety well covered in the traditional areas.

[Pierre]

Generally speaking "New Developments" should be at least ducted up during construction.Not that they will be cabled but for the fact that most Local Authorities will not adopt the highways on the development if they aren't. The reason being that they do not want ntl to come back and dig up the roads once the council are responsible for maintaining them.

[gooner4life]

All new housing developments in my surrounding area are pre wired internally for BT and NTL and have the ducting and cabs prepared before anybody even moves in, all that is needed is to pull a cable from cab to premises through the ducting and connect it to the Omni.

[andrew_wallasey]

There are areas round here where Nynex just stopped 1/2 way through doing areas. Theres like this one easte wiv everything in the ground and the cabs but you can't get service there but 1/2 mile up the road you can.


Then in Wallasey there are roads off Seabank Raod with no Cable (Holland Drive, etc) where there is cable at the top of the road?

Why did they miss odd streets out?

Originally Posted by andrew_wallasey

There are areas round here where Nynex just stopped 1/2 way through doing areas. Theres like this one easte wiv everything in the ground and the cabs but you can't get service there but 1/2 mile up the road you can.


Then in Wallasey there are roads off Seabank Raod with no Cable (Holland Drive, etc) where there is cable at the top of the road?

Why did they miss odd streets out?

Government subsidy ran out?

[andrew_wallasey]

Surely they would have planned what money was being used for which areas though. It is a waste of time and money to lay ducting and install cabs if they can never receive a service.