Product Process descriptions

FTTP and FoD Process Description

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The product details page is where you’ll specify everything about the FTTP service at the property.

The information that you provide on this product details page will determine the type of FTTP order that you are placing.  Whether a Fibre on Demand order, or a standard FTTP order, whether a basic FTTP provide, or a migration or Working Line Take over order.

• In most cases, you’ll leave the FTTP on Demand field set to No, unless your availability check showed that FTTP is not currently available to the end customer’s property, but Fibre on Demand is.
  
• The Care package field refers to the Service Maintenance level.  See the Select your service maintenance level section for more information.
• Note that on our order screens the Upstream speed is on the left and the Downstream speed is on the right.  This is opposite how we normally talk about line speeds where we quote the downstream speed first.  Be aware of this as you are configuring the bandwidths so that you don’t end up with an error later in the order journey!  See the Select your bandwidth option section for information about setting these fields.
• The handover port service ID is also sometimes called the GEA Cablelink ID.  The GEA cablelink is the connection in the exchange that hands the data traffic from our network to yours.  
  • Your company will have installed the GEA cablelinks in the exchange before you start placing FTTP orders in each exchange area.  
  • You’ll probably have multiple GEA cablelink references per exchange, one for each “headend” or Layer 2 switch (L2S) in our network, so make sure you choose the right GEA cablelink ID to match the headend on which your end customer’s property is connected.  
  • We displayed the headend as part of the availability check earlier in the order journey and your company will probably have a look-up table that tells you the GEA Cablelink service ID associated with each.
• If you are adding a subsequent service to an existing ONT, or if you’re taking over an existing working FTTP service, then you need to enter the correct ONT reference in the field.
  • We provided the ONT reference as part of the availability check earlier in the order journey.  
  • Note, that the reference is different than the ONT serial number, so be sure to enter the correct value when filling in this field.  The ONT reference starts ‘ONT’ followed by 10 digits.
  • If you identify during the order that the serial number at the end customer’s property is different to what is recorded on eMLC, you should proceed with the order using the details in eMLC and the network records will be updated either during the Test before provision, or as an ONT mismatch fault after provision.
• The Hazard notes field is limited to 100 characters and should be used specifically to display health and safety risks, like a dog, or high voltage wiring, water hazard or trackside location.  If you need more space, use the Special Arrangement Notes field in the Site Details section.  Hazard notes is a mandatory field, so if there are no hazards, enter ‘None’ to proceed with the order.

FTTP Order details

From the FTTP Order Details section, we’ll derive the migration/working line take over or subsequent provide journey that your order will take.

• The Master Order, Linked Order Reference and Post Code fields are no longer applicable to the FTTP order journey.  They became redundant when the FVA product was withdrawn.  You should keep the Master order field set to ‘No’, and the Linked order reference and Post Code fields blank..
• The Remote Id and Outer Tag fields relate to how the data for this FTTP service will pass over your GEA Cablelink and into your network.  You should speak to your network management and IT department for more details about what values you, if any, you should add to these fields.
  • The possible values could be between (2 to 3000) and (3071 to 4094)
• The Equipment room, Equipment floor, and Equipment position fields are important if you need this FTTP order installed in a comms room or into a specific equipment rack within an end customer’s building.  This information will help our engineer install the equipment in the right place.  These fields will be more applicable to business installations.
• If you are transferring an existing copper or FTTP service from one CP or service provider to another as part of this order, you should set the Change of retailer field to ‘Yes’.  See the Change of CP section for more details.
• If your end customer is moving into premises and taking over an existing FTTP service at the site, you should set the Working line takeover field to ‘Yes’.  See the Working FTTP Line Takeover section for more information.
  • It’s important to specify the port number that you are taking over, even if there is only one port on the ONT in the Port number field.  If you do not specify this, the order will proceed down a subsequent provide order journey that may deliver the service on a spare port, or an entire second line and ONT into the property.
• If you are migrating an existing WLR service to FTTP, you should input the end customer’s PSTN phone number into the Installation DN field.  This includes migration of the WLR voice only service, migration of WLR+SMPF, or migration of WLR+FTTC.  Using this field will trigger a managed cease of both the copper voice and data service as part of the FTTP provision.
  • Driving a migration journey of both the voice and data services will instruct our engineers to remove the copper lead-in as part of the FTTP provision.  You can read more about that in the Fulfill order section.
• Migrating from MPF or MPF+FTTC is done by using the Access Line ID field on the order.  It will trigger a managed cease of the MPF and FTTC services as part of the FTTP provision.
  • Driving a migration journey of both the voice and data services will instruct our engineers to remove the copper lead-in as part of the FTTP provision.  You can read more about that in the Fulfill order section.
• If you want to keep the underlying copper WLR or MPF service, and only want to migrate the broadband service from SMPF or FTTC to FTTP, then you should enter the SMPF or FTTC service ID into the Losing service ID field.    
  • If you only migrate the data service to FTTP, our engineers will not remove the copper lead-in as part of the FTTP provision which may require additional visits to the end customer’s premises (and additional cost) in the future.  You can read more about removal of the copper lead-in in the Fulfill order section.
• The Controlled cessation field can be set to ‘Yes’ if you need to have a period of concurrent running of the copper service and the FTTP service.  More details of how this works during the FTTP order provision process is set out in the Parallel running section.
  • However, please note that it is not physically possible to run the copper and FTTP in parallel when the copper lead-in is removed as part of the FTTP provision.  In that scenario the physical copper line stops working as soon as it is physically disconnected, even if the copper service continues to be billed in our respective systems.
• The ONT type requested field may also be visible on the product details screen.  This field contains three values, None, Multiport and Restrict swap.  You can find more details about this field in the Select your ONT section.

Site Details, ECC Charge and Site Visit Details

In the Site details section, we’re looking for the key information about the end user who will host us on the day our engineer will install the ONT.

• Use the site visit notes field to indicate if there is any special or extra instruction to access the site.
• Provide the site contact name, phone number and email address that we can use to provide appointment reminders and to ring ahead on the day of installation to make sure the host is ready for our visit.
• There is also space to provide a secondary phone number in case there is no answer on the primary number.
• The Special arrangement notes field is for orders that are part of specific tactical projects.  For example, during 2021, some CPs used this field to add #removecopper which told us we could remove the copper lead-in, even though the CP didn’t place a valid migration order.  That tactical example is no longer in use
• The Access Password field can be used if your end customer needs to provide a security code for us to enter the premises.  Maybe there is a locked gate, or a key safe if the end customer is elderly or vulnerable and unable to open the door.
• The ECC charge band field will default to 0, meaning that you do not pre-approve any excess construction charges.  However, if you have already agreed an excess construction charge budget, you may pre-approve a higher value of ECCs when you place the order.     
• • You can find out the values of each charge band by referring to the ECC product description document.  Some products have different charge band values so make sure you refer to the GEA-FTTP charge band when you review the document.
  • If you do not pre-approve an ECC charge band, or the band you pre-approve is not sufficient to cover the costs, we will delay the order to allow you to amend these details during the order provision.  You can read more about that process, in the Agree ECCs section
• In the Site visit details section of this screen, you can add multiple Site visit reasons to the order, based on your needs for this end customer.  See the Select your site visit requirements section for more information about the available options.
• The Site visit notes field is used if you select the ‘prove IP voice’ visit reason to specify the digital voice phone number that the engineer will need for testing the voice service as well as your digital voice helpdesk number that the engineer will ring if they encounter issues when attempting to demonstrate the voice service.