Undergrounding a phone cable?

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quickymart

4918 posts

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#148723 28-Jun-2014 20:25

My stepdad lives in a rural area (not covered by the RBI, unlike TimboNZ). His landline is very poor quality - lots of pops, clicks and hums. He is about 6-7kms from the exchange, and when he had ADSL speeds were little better than dialup. He has a T-Stick now which gives much better performance, but it's costly.
When I was living there (in the 1990s) the landline quality was poor for just voice, never mind dialup.
The line to his house goes from the main road across one of his paddocks (above ground) and then connects to the house. If it rains the line gets even worse and voice calls become almost unbearable.

My question is, would undergrounding the line make any difference to (a) his voice calls and (b) his ADSL internet? Would he have to pay for this? Who would he call to get pricing? He spoke to Telecom before and got a bit of a run-around. Would he need to call Chorus directly?

Sorry for posting this in the Telecom forum, I couldn't see a Chorus one.

PeterReader

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Geekzone

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#1076248 28-Jun-2014 20:25

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

andrewNZ

2162 posts

Uber Geek

#1076260 28-Jun-2014 20:46

If it gets worse when it rains, the cable needs replacing. You could try to find the faults, but its probably not worth the effort.

Replace the cable, and underground I so animals and vehicles can't damage it. If he has access to a decent tractor, he can probably borrow or hire a mole plow and do it himself.

Location: Dunedin

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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Vocus

#1076276 28-Jun-2014 21:10

andrewNZ: If it gets worse when it rains, the cable needs replacing. You could try to find the faults, but its probably not worth the effort.

Replace the cable, and underground I so animals and vehicles can't damage it. If he has access to a decent tractor, he can probably borrow or hire a mole plow and do it himself.

I am fairly sure you have to get Chorus to do it. Given that it's substandard, they should fix it anyway. Go back to Telecom and push harder for a solution.

quickymart

4918 posts

Uber Geek

#1076279 28-Jun-2014 21:21

I thought that might be the case :( he's not technical so telling him to dig a trench purely to improve his phone/internet connection wouldn't work - he would just put up with the phone as it is. But I'm more interested in saving him money and getting him onto ADSL again.

InstallerUFB

833 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1076281 28-Jun-2014 21:25

From personal experiance working in the rural faults environment (for many years) there seems to be more and more noise issues relating to electric fenceing today then there was even in the 90s. It appears that it is cheaper both in time and materials just to increase the size and power of the pulse unit as rather than fix any earthing/power loss issues in their fence lines hence more and nosier interferance.

Unless it has been proven that there is a fault in the aerial line then it may be a complete waste of money and time in undergrounding the service lead, there is probably more likely issues somewhere back in the other 6.5km of cableing back to the exchange. Undergrounding the service lead may make no differnce to either voice or xDSL service

but if you think undergrounding the service lead will make a differnce then it can be done privately if you follow guidelines from the chorus website - http://www.chorus.co.nz/rural-broadband-initiative/fibre-in-rural-community/wiring. / It can alos be done by a civil contractor through a RSP

Background info - All communications to Chorus have to go through a RSP (Retail Service Provider) as Chorus are a wholesaler of services not the retailer - so you can't generaly contact them directly to get a service or a change to an existing service

quickymart

4918 posts

Uber Geek

#1076296 28-Jun-2014 22:04

One person supports this post

Sorry - forgot to add that. There are lots of electric fences nearby (you can count at least three distinctive clicks from fences on the line) as well as a gold dredge nearby, adding a discernible hum. So with that in mind...what might be the best option to improve his landline quality? Or is he stuck?

Cbfd

306 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1076300 28-Jun-2014 22:13

Ask to have a noise choke installed on the line may get rid of some of the clicks (

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1076301 28-Jun-2014 22:18

One person supports this post

Well if he can sort out the fence noise at source (sort out the earthing/leakage) then it may help. What's a gold dredge?

jnimmo

What does this tag do
1025 posts

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Subscriber

#1076305 28-Jun-2014 22:32

Could be worth reporting a fault. $150 or whatever it is if they find none, but it is possible you could get them to test the line out at the road compared with inside the house, then you would know whether it was worth replacing/undergrounding the cable or not

DarthKermit

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#1076309 28-Jun-2014 22:53

quickymart: The line to his house goes from the main road across one of his paddocks (above ground) and then connects to the house.

About how far is it from the road to his house?

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

quickymart

4918 posts

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#1076354 29-Jun-2014 04:22

Probably around 250 metres (never measured it, I must confess).

DarthKermit

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#1076362 29-Jun-2014 07:36

That would be a lot of conduit needed.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Cbfd

306 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1076378 29-Jun-2014 08:09

Service leads dint need to be in a 20mm pipe in the country

oxnsox

1923 posts

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#1076597 29-Jun-2014 16:53

bergeeknz: Well if he can sort out the fence noise at source (sort out the earthing/leakage) then it may help. What's a gold dredge?

It is likely the fence noise isnt all from the same owner if youre looking at several km of cable. So probably not an option.

Whats a gold dredge?
A large mechancial device that takes the bottom of a river, brings it to the surface and deposits it in nice piles along the way to getting all the shinny bits out. The Greens love em