Photorefractive (PR) spatial soliton propagation hints that all optical routing can be achieved through soliton interactions. This requires, however, fast build up and sensitivity to telecommunication wavelengths. We have investigated the build up of infrared (1,06m) photorefractive solitons in iron doped indium phosphide (InP:Fe) and shown that PR self focusing occurs at input powers of hundreds of W and intensities in the range of W/cm2, showing a build up time down to the microsecond.