Desperate!

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Desperate!

1 | 2

bnapi

92 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#485266 24-Jun-2011 00:39

what is your street called and is the cable really only 1cm below the concrete? Also, make a complaint to the council.

NZCrusader

646 posts

Ultimate Geek

#485479 24-Jun-2011 14:10

I would be standing next to the contractors with a baseball bat.

Kindly encouraging them to do the job carefully as for each time they cut a cable. One of thier bones will break.

Btw I can also sympathise with you about Chorus / Telecom. Its really annoying when the problem is with their lines & you have to contact your ISP, otherwise they wont do anything.

NZ / AU Battlefield 4 Gaming Community
http://www.sonsofvalour.net/forums/forum.php

Johnk

832 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#485967 26-Jun-2011 09:27

Is This road in Auck? If not then the same thing is happening somewhere else as well :(

I Believe I have just spoken with one of the contractors working in the area.

They do have plans to work off showing where the cables are meant to be, but they are not accurate, the plan also states cables buried at 400mm yet they are finding them at only 150mm.

I have worked in contracting and road works before fixing electrical cables that have been cut, its not as easy as following the plans and it all works out perfectly.

tarasutherland

28 posts

Geek

Trusted

#486324 27-Jun-2011 10:22

I'd say (personally) that the response you have had from all companies sounds a bit blase.

I will go and talk to some people and see what I can do.

tarasutherland

28 posts

Geek

Trusted

#487266 29-Jun-2011 09:25

networkn - are you able to PM me the name of the street?

I'd had a chat with one of the Chorus guys and they would like to give this contracting company a call. As they do rather a lot of work around Auckland, we'd need to be specific about where.

While we understand the frustration and disruption that third party damage to our network brings to customers, we are limited in what we can do about third party damage to underground cables.

Contractors are encouraged to make use of our network plans which are available for free via the beforeUdig service. Because these plans are only a general guide to the location of cables, we also encourage contractors to use detection devices to accurately identify the location of cables before commencing digging. Chorus offers a service for this purpose.

http://chorus.co.nz/safedigging

Where buried cables have been identified, contractors should take care to avoid damaging them.
The depth of a cable should not matter because once the location of a cable has been identified due care should be taken.
The depth of a cable may also have changed over time if civil works have been done in the area (i.e. it may be shallower than when it was first buried if footpaths have been relaid previously)

When a contractor damages our cables, Chorus seeks to recover the cost of the repair work from the contractor. Customers who have been affected, or who have concerns about the work being undertaken, should contact the organisation that commissioned the work being done by the contractor and make their concerns known.

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#487519 29-Jun-2011 17:49

networkn: Hi There!

John Filmore Contractors have been down our street for the last 3 weeks, working on new footpaths.

In that time they have cut the cables to our phones and internet no less than 5 times, and since then we have had crappy internet speeds sporadically, our lines drop off and need to be reconnected and we have crackling/static on varying lines at different times.

and let me guess... not one meter of optical fiber is being laid while the footpaths are out and work continues. I seriously hope that, with the UFB stuff revving up, that fibre trenching gets co-ordinated with this work.

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

techmeister

310 posts

Ultimate Geek

#487841 30-Jun-2011 13:44

johnr: Vodafone does not control the cables in the ground,

The data should be in a data centre, You can't create work orders unless something is broken

Vodafone are coping out big time here IMO ! Pathetic !

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

raytaylor

4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#488889 3-Jul-2011 19:38

Regs:

and let me guess... not one meter of optical fiber is being laid while the footpaths are out and work continues. I seriously hope that, with the UFB stuff revving up, that fibre trenching gets co-ordinated with this work.

+1 there
There needs to be some organisation between UFB buildouts and council works.

I believe the government should have mandated that all councils should have a website or some service set up with a list of any planned road / footpath works in the next 3 years (and any more that get planned as time goes on) so that the local UFB company can plan ahead where to lay cable at what time.

Eg. if they can find out that xyz street is going to have its footpath dug up 18 months ahead of when it will auctually happen, it means the UFB company can say 'oh just leave it open for a day or so before you fill it in, we will put some ducting in at that time'

Or they can put in ducting early and blow the fibre through later. I reckon it would bring down the overall cost by millions.

I also believe that because telecom has so much ducting already in place, it was one of the main reasons they were chosen for most of the country.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

snnet

1410 posts

Uber Geek

#488899 3-Jul-2011 20:06

I'm almost certain these works are only to keep workers busy. I've noticed it while carrying out residential work along east coast road- they rip up perfectly good footpaths and relay them- and there is no fibre duct laying going on. It seems absurd, and really creates a nuisance with traffic. I can't get over the fact they are ripping up perfectly good paving and replacing it. And it's not so that it all looks the same because they leave some intact! I guess it's expected though, it is in auckland after all and I'm sure anyone who pays rates is used to this kind of wasting of money.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79253 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#488902 3-Jul-2011 20:15

A bit off topic, but regarding the last comments... What a pain. Our road had major work done to lay some optical cable for one provider, and a couple of weeks later another letter in the mailbox saying we should expect works... to lay some network cables for another provider.

Unacceptable. The amount of money wasted in all this is incredible.

BarTender

3606 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#488963 3-Jul-2011 23:11

freitasm: A bit off topic, but regarding the last comments... What a pain. Our road had major work done to lay some optical cable for one provider, and a couple of weeks later another letter in the mailbox saying we should expect works... to lay some network cables for another provider.

Unacceptable. The amount of money wasted in all this is incredible.

Agreed.

Trenching really shouldn't receive consent if they are not going to be laying ducting and permitting co-lo in the duct. Since the next issue if you do lay ducts, is how much you charge for another provider to use it?

sbiddle is far more informed here, but even over in Aus where the majority of cities are ducted they are still wondering if 11B is going to be enough for their fibre rollout.

I'm struggle to see how far 1.5B is going to go considering all the suburbs I know about have trenched and not ducted copper. That's a lot of road to dig up, or bore through.

raytaylor

4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#488980 4-Jul-2011 01:31

I see around hawkes bay they are using directional drilling everywhere to do it.

It seems that i see the drilling machine and trailer parked up on the side of the road for a day or so, then a few weeks later in thesame spot is the ugly unison fibre van for a day
Telecom also used the same drilling company to do their napier-taupo fibre link a few years ago.

I think they should have made it a requirement that local councils and lines companies must provide the LFC with a 2 or 3 year plan on when future works are going to take place, and keep the LFC updated on any modifications or added works projects.

That way the LFC can decide if they want to take the opportunity to lay some ducting while the footpath and road is pulled up, and pre plan it so they can blow fibre through at a later stage. It would speed up the total roll out i would think, and save millions of dollars in resealing and fixing up their mess when they need to dig.

The other thing is the LFC can plan to delay / work around a large area that is going to be dug up for an urban beautification project by the council in a year's time and do that portion of the city then. In the mean time, they can get more houses properites and streets covered where they can much faster.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

zapf

11 posts

Geek

#501065 2-Aug-2011 21:57

networkn: Hi There!
John Filmore Contractors have been down our street for the last 3 weeks, working on new footpaths.

You don't happen to be on Dacre St do you?

1 | 2