Spark won't allow me to use 5G Broadband at my Greenlane house but my phone gets excellent 5G there

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark won't allow me to use 5G Broadband at my Greenlane house but my phone gets excellent 5G there

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#3242158 29-May-2024 09:44

In that document Chorus use the term "should" referring to diameter and colour of the conduit. In earlier times we got reminded constantly that " “shall” denotes a minimum requirement in order to conform to the specification. “should” denotes a recommendation or that which is advised but not required in order to conform to the specification." Considering that they are happy with a 200mm spade cut for microduct maybe they don't really care.

quickymart

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#3242224 29-May-2024 10:59

nztim:

Bung:

How true is this? I know of several places where electrical conduit was used. The old NZPO conduit was grey and AFAIK that gets reused.

Definitely the NZPO is reused it has at my place.

I don't think electrical conduit meets standards

https://www.chorus.co.nz/themes/custom/chorus_consumer/components/assets/docs/property-development/Wiring-homes-for-fibre.pdf

NZPO conduit would today be considered Chorus conduit, I imagine. Electrical shouldn't be being used at all, however.

CYaBro

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#3242261 29-May-2024 12:48

michaelmurfy:

People even in more rural areas are willing to pay $10,000+ for it to be installed.

🙋‍♂️ I did! 🤣

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

quickymart

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#3242937 30-May-2024 20:47

@alanwalp how did you get on (with both 2degrees and the fibre install)?

alanwalp

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#3244477 4-Jun-2024 17:30

Update:

I now have 2 degrees 5G running in my house, getting approx 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up, so that's about 5x faster than my 4G was.
I haven't yet been able to determine a simple fibre pathway into the house. I tried to dig into my garden and locate the green chorus conduit that carries my old copper telephone line, but I couldn't locate it (and photos taken during construction suggest it is under the concrete driveway).

Remaining options for fibre seem to be:

Smash up the concrete driveway and find the green conduit which goes to my central hub in the basement, then re-concrete the driveway.
Put a sawcut in the concrete wide enough to take the black fibre cable across to my garage and then to the central hub.
Feed the fibre through an orange conduit currently carrying power for my pond pump back to the hub (and try and power the pond pump another way, or put both power and fibre through the conduit - the chorus guys weren't keen on this)
Run conduit to the back of the house and to an outside point I have for a tv under an eave - this still requires visible conduit which doesn't look great and the chorus guys weren't keen on this either.

None of the above options seem good, so I'm still trialling the 5G and waiting for a better fibre pathway to emerge ...

Cheers and thanks for the interest!

Linux

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#3244478 4-Jun-2024 17:36

5 x faster than 4G you can't complain!

Bung

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#3244512 4-Jun-2024 20:43

alanwalp:

Remaining options for fibre seem to be:

Smash up the concrete driveway and find the green conduit which goes to my central hub in the basement, then re-concrete the driveway.

If there's an intact copper line in the conduit it can be traced. When someone thought the conduit was pinched did they have access to both ends?

If the copper cable won't move it could still be close to the starting point. It would be worth trying how far you get with a flexible rod.

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#3244514 4-Jun-2024 20:59

alanwalp:

Feed the fibre through an orange conduit currently carrying power for my pond pump back to the hub (and try and power the pond pump another way, or put both power and fibre through the conduit - the chorus guys weren't keen on this)

Ask Chorus to supply you direct bury fibre and let them know you will arrange getting it from house to property drop off point.

Run the supplied cable by whatever means practical (hint hint above)

When the Chorus contractor comes back, show them the two ends of fibre, do not explain how it gets from drop off point to your house :)

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#3244516 4-Jun-2024 21:03

When we had a similar issue, the failure in the conduit turned out to be immediately under the concrete path against the house, right under where the ETP was to be installed. The conduit had been broken during the concrete pour setup, probably. We ended up cutting about a 100mm square hole and putting a standard 'earth electrode below' hatch in the hole to avoid re-pouring concrete or having an unsightly patch. The 100mm square hole was enough to get down to the failed point, cut it out, and route the microduct through.

Definitely try with a snake to see how far you can get at each end; if it's very near one end or the other, digging or cutting a small hole is perfectly feasible, and you can use a grate/cover similar to a water toby or earth stake.

I will say that this fix was an absolute PITA, mostly because a) it had to be fixed, and b) we had initially no clue why the drawwire didn't work for Chorus.

alanwalp

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#3327036 2-Jan-2025 16:28

Hi All

Just a final update:

I tried a 5G modem with both 2 degrees and Spark over a few months, but the connection wasn't consistently stable with either one.

So, I got some fibre from the Chorus guys and installed it in conduit to the back of the house over a week or so. Then the Chorus guys came back and were happy they only had to connect both ends (even though they initially said I shouldn't install the modem in the location I put it) and our connection now is fast and stable.

In the end I haven't had to make a hole in the house or cut up the concrete, and while the aesthetics aren't quite so nice (ie I have a conduit running up a concrete wall), our internet (so far!) is proving much better.

Therefore, I think the original advice that many of you gave me to "just get fibre installed" turned out to be correct!

Many thanks

Alan

PS I'm now trying to figure out how to get the fast connection to all parts of the house. I get about 700/400Mbps from the modem itself, but the airport express extenders I have around the house are running closer to 100/100 or worse. I presume I either need different cables (although I think I have cat5E everywhere now) or the airport expresses are too old and need upgrading. Hopefully I'll figure this out ...

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3327038 2-Jan-2025 16:33

Are they wired WAPs (with ethernet back to the router) or are they set up in repeater mode? The latter gives much worse performance as you need to move the data twice over radio.

Airport Express is a name that's been around a long time; check the specs on the actual WAPs. It's possible they only support N300 or 100Mb/s ethernet or something.

Faulty cables (missing a pair or two) will sometimes negotiate at 100Mb/s instead of gigabit.

RunningMan

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#3327046 2-Jan-2025 16:34

Even the newest Airport Expresses are now 13 years old, only support 802.11n and had 100Mb/s ethernet ports. If you're getting 100Mb/s through them, that's as good as it will ever be. They would need to be swapped out for something more modern.

alanwalp

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#3327065 2-Jan-2025 18:09

Yes, you're right. Airport Express max speed is 100/100 so I'm getting as good as possible with that hardware.

I get 700/400 direct from router, 100/100 via wifi to Airport Express which is connected directly to router port, and then 15/12 via wifi to Airport Express which is connected via a switch (and cat6 or 5e cable).

Any suggestions on why switch is slowing the speed of second airport express would be appreciated ...

cheers

RunningMan

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#3327066 2-Jan-2025 18:14

What model AE? The even older ones will give lesser performance.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3327068 2-Jan-2025 18:18

Depending on the model of Airport Express, it may even be one of the old 802.11g models that is only capable of 54Mb/s theoretical maximum - 15Mb/s real world would be about right for one of those. It's very unlikely to be a cable, port, or switch issue as that would cap you to either ~92Mb/s (in case of 100Mb/s ethernet) or perhaps ~9Mb/s (in case of 10Mb/s ethernet).

Cheap upgrade option would probably be these: https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETTPL9404/TP-Link-Deco-E4-AC1200-Dual-Band-WiFi-5-Whole-Home?qr=pspy

Would probably get you into the 300 range.

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