FTTC Fibre Cabinets
FTTC Fibre Cabinets
FTTC Fibre Cabinets
BT are currently rolling out their fibre access network throughout the UK. This page gives an overview
of BT Openreach's FTTC fibre cabinets.
FTTC Rollout
FTTC DSLAM Models
FTTC Cabinet Capacity
Inside the FTTC Cabinet
FTTC Cabinet photographs
FTTC Street Furniture
Combined PCP & FTTC cabinets
Line card info
As at April 2013, BT Openreach had so far installed over 30,000 street cabinets. BT have invested
£2.5 billion to roll out fibre to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014, which is a year ahead of
target.
They plan to install 450 cabinets per week (>20,000 cabinets pa), enable over 1,000 exchanges, lay
over 50,000 km of fibre and connect 200,000 distribution points.
Further BDUK deployment is to reach the rural final third. The Government has allocated £530m of
public funding to help bring faster broadband to rural areas.
March 2014: 19 million homes, which is 2/3rds of UK premises now have access to fibre based
services, some 21 months ahead of the original target. 2.7 Million consumers signed up for Openreach
fibre services. Total of 6 million premises in the UK have fibre.
Maximum line capacity per DSLAM depends on the make and model installed.
Cabinet Capacity
DSLAM Max Line Cards Max Lines Cab Housing
Additional line card installation is automatically triggered when utilisation is above 75%.
* In 2016 Openreach started to replace some Huawei MA5603's with new 64 port line cards. A
previous limitation of the Huawei cabs was only 48 ports per line card.
Main parts and electronics that make up the inside of an FTTC cabinet.
~ FTTC Cabinet Photographs
This particular cabinet is designated ECI 256 - note provision availability for 4 line cards and full IDC rack
BT have been known to use the following street Huawei 288 /384HD FTTC cabinet
FTTC cabinets:
Newer model is 14mm wider to facilitate 90° opening of the side door for easier
access.
Combined PCP/FTTC cabinets are not being Combined PCP & FTTC unit
deployed in areas where there is an existing PCP Photograph taken by Niall McGill
DSL line card for Huawei MA5603 showing multiple DSL transceivers and various chips.