Network access provider Openreach (BT) has issued a small but interesting update to UK ISPs on the question of how they intend to deal with G.fast broadband cabinets that have a) no activate customers, and b) have been 100% overbuilt by the operator’s latest gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. You can guess the answer.
Just to recap. G.fast (ITU G.9701) was an interim hybrid-fibre and copper technology, which was capable of download speeds up to around 300Mbps, but which ultimately ended up being abandoned (here) in favour of Openreach’s welcome desire to deploy full fibre (FTTP) technology at scale. The service only ever covered around 2.8 million UK premises and just a tiny number of ISPs still support it (here).
Openreach has since overbuilt many of their G.fast cabinet (extension pods) areas with FTTP and take-up of the old service was so low that some of those don’t have any active G.fast customers left. According to the details of a new briefing (here), which have been seen by ISPreview, Openreach already have an agreement with ISPs that would allow them to close G.fast in FTTP Priority Exchanges areas with 100% full fibre overbuild.
The agreement has since been firmed up through discussions at the industry CFPCG (Copper Fibre Products Commercial Group), which means that they now have the support to “close ALL remaining Gfast Pods with zero active end customers where they also have 100% FTTP overbuild“. As a result, 30 days’ notice has been issued for the first tranche of the qualifying DSLAMS (cabinets) to be put into the decommissioning programme.
At present this means that a total of 335 G.fast DSLAMs will be put through the Openreach Compaction process, where line cards are removed for reuse, all systems and inventory will be updated and then finally the DSLAM will be stood down and removed from power.
At this stage we don’t have any details regarding the exact list of DSLAMs or how long they will all take to be decommissioned, but then this process is as much a learning process for Openreach as it is for ISPs. Overall, this is a logical step (given the total availability of FTTP in related areas) and obviously won’t impact any live customers.
Just to be absolutely clear, if you are still on a G.fast line in an Openreach FTTP area then you’re not on a “zero use” cabinet and so don’t need to worry.