Imminent fibre installation at my house

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Imminent fibre installation at my house

geekIT

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#298862 22-Jul-2022 12:45

A few weeks back, when the 'thrusting' contractor was beginning to inject fibre lines into our town's street berms, I phoned a Chorus guy about changing the fibre drop point from one side of my section to the other. He asked for a diagram, which I sent him, and which he subsequently forwarded to another more relevant Chorus staffer. That guy emailed me thus:

Hi Mr.GeekIT,
Thank you for contacting us.
The fibre rollout in the area is utilizing a plan for this build of the network.
Where the drop point will be placed I (*sic) decided on where the existing copper drop point is located. (* I think he meant 'is')
Once this is completed then when you call a provider of your choice to have it installed then request that you are wanting it installed as per the picture you have sent us.
Kind Regards (him)
Customer Service Representative
0800 600 100
www.Chorus.co.nz
PO Box 6640
Auckland 1010

I translated this as 'We have a (thrusting) plan and we're gonna stick to it. If it's not right, someone else can fix it later'.

My question: My ISP is Spark. So am I to understand that I should phone Spark (the number I've always used for tech stuff is 0800 22 55 98, which nowadays gets the Philippines) and then spend an hour or so trying to explain what I'm trying to achieve? Or will someone from Spark will phone me, or knock on my door, and say, "Hello Mr. GeekIT, I'm here to make sure that your fibre installation will be be exactly the way you want it."?

I actually spoke, unintentionally, to a passing but genuine Chorus technician (who shall remain nameless, mainly because he didn't identify himself) and his advice was, "Mate, you need to tell Chorus exactly what you want and then hang around while they do it, or they'll xxxx it up. That's what I did when they installed my own fiber line."

What do I need to do now?

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#2945254 22-Jul-2022 14:15

You have existing conduit that may be usable, are you wanting to shift the fibre for some reason or is Chorus intending to put the fibre on the other side of your frontage?

Jase2985

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#2945266 22-Jul-2022 14:30

good luck, generally when it comes to where they are putting things in the street and the work starting its near on impossible to change things.

Inside your property you will have more luck/freedom but you need to be there for everything, scope, instillation and any meetings etc.

spark have nothing to do with this so no point bothering them.

maybe @wheelbarrow01 can help but i suspect it may be too far gone

Linux

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#2945334 22-Jul-2022 15:20

You are not a Chorus customer you have zero say in the rollout / build and the RSP can not change the build

nztim

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#2945350 22-Jul-2022 15:51

It goes where it goes, usually (but not always) follows the path of copper

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

geekIT

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#2945442 22-Jul-2022 17:22

Okay, to explain in a little more detail: I originally approached the 'thrusting' contractors before they started work on the street fiber. They said, 'We can't help, gotta stick to the plan, talk to Chorus.' So I did and below is the plan I sent. I explained that some previous owner of the property(or maybe just the technician, who was probably a Telecom guy back then) had brought the copper line to the house from the base of a power pole, and placed a phone terminal inside the house. Then the owner, I imagine, had said, 'But I want the line to go to the other side of the house where my phone and computers are,' so the technician stapled the phone line to the weatherboards all the way around to the other side of the building, around 20 meters, and mounted a second phone jack there. This would have been the easy solution because the house has virtually zero crawl space and the base is concrete.

But I don't want this primitive arrangement to continue with the fiber line. Hence my request to change the fiber drop point to the other side of the section. Jase2985 said Spark wouldn't be involved with the fiber line in the property, and it appears that Chorus aren't either, so who should I be talking to?

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PolicyGuy

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#2945448 22-Jul-2022 17:45

From what I've read on here, your best bet is to get some conduit and trench and/or thrust it from where Chorus is going to put your fibre entry point to where you want the ETP & ONT to go.
Don't forget to get sweeping turns for the bends.
Happy digging 🙃

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cyril7

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#2945449 22-Jul-2022 17:46

Hi is there underfloor access, if so have the etp places on the left side of the house as the copper is, and get the installers to run an opti5e under the house to the office and place the ont there.

Cyril

Jase2985

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#2945466 22-Jul-2022 18:36

geekIT:

But I don't want this primitive arrangement to continue with the fiber line. Hence my request to change the fiber drop point to the other side of the section. Jase2985 said Spark wouldn't be involved with the fiber line in the property, and it appears that Chorus aren't either, so who should I be talking to?

as said your are likely way to late to have it changed. if they are already laying it in the street.

My fiber comes in on the opposite side of the property to where the ONT is. I ran my own conduit from where it enters to where the ONT is.

I would say if you want it to come in where you have said you will have to do it yourself, or deal with some shallow direct bury, not in the current conduit, done by the chorus contractor.

Sucks but chorus is very inflexible.

quickymart

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#2945469 22-Jul-2022 19:01

Nope, if the rollout is happening in your area it would have been all planned and designed a long time ago, and it's extremely unlikely it can be changed now.

Wheelbarrow01

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#2945655 23-Jul-2022 17:08

quickymart:

Nope, if the rollout is happening in your area it would have been all planned and designed a long time ago, and it's extremely unlikely it can be changed now.

Correct. The fibre network is generally designed to have a double drop-off point at every second boundary - which then services two properties.

So the drop-off for your property will have been designed to service both your property and the property to your left. The network build team can't just move it to your right hand boundary as it will no longer be in a suitable location to service your left side neighbour.

Your first option is to request for it to be relocated as part of your installation. In that case, the existing drop-off will stay where it is to service your neighbour on the left, and you'll essentially be charged to have an extra drop-off installed on your right hand boundary. It's outside boundary work so will involve council consent and footpath/berm reinstatement costs - it's probably in the thousands of dollars if I had to estimate it. But the work will be quoted so you get the chance to say no.

As someone else has suggested, it may be far cheaper to run your own 20mm duct and draw wire from your preferred FTP location on the right side of the house out to the originally proposed drop-off point on the left. Another option could be shallow trenched ruggedised cable which Chorus technicians can lay in soft surfaces and across concrete paths etc via slot trenching. This is one of the free installation methods so is probably the quickest/easiest option.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

Technofreak

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#2945693 23-Jul-2022 22:21

Our fibre entry point is on a different street to where the copper was.

When it comes time for your fibre installation get Chorus to thrust to where you'd like your ONT to be. That's what I did and pretty well got what I wanted. It doesn't have to be where your copper comes in now though for most installs that is probably the best choice, though not in your case.

I used the fibre install as an opportunity to reconfigure the ethernet/ WiFi setup in the house and now use a previously disused cupboard to house the ONT, router, server etc.

They were not prepared ( definitely not keen) to thrust under the driveway, which meant I had to modify my plan but it still worked out OK.

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nztim

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#2945694 23-Jul-2022 23:01

I risked my cooper as a draw wire, paid off, got exactly what I wanted, nice clean install, no digging or fence, or driveway smashing

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

quickymart

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#2945759 24-Jul-2022 07:59

You were lucky, let's hope the OP is too.

geekIT

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#2945867 24-Jul-2022 12:47

Wheelbarrow01:

Correct. The fibre network is generally designed to have a double drop-off point at every second boundary - which then services two properties.

So the drop-off for your property will have been designed to service both your property and the property to your left. The network build team can't just move it to your right hand boundary as it will no longer be in a suitable location to service your left side neighbour.

Your first option is to request for it to be relocated as part of your installation. In that case, the existing drop-off will stay where it is to service your neighbour on the left, and you'll essentially be charged to have an extra drop-off installed on your right hand boundary. It's outside boundary work so will involve council consent and footpath/berm reinstatement costs - it's probably in the thousands of dollars if I had to estimate it. But the work will be quoted so you get the chance to say no.

As someone else has suggested, it may be far cheaper to run your own 20mm duct and draw wire from your preferred FTP location on the right side of the house out to the originally proposed drop-off point on the left. Another option could be shallow trenched ruggedised cable which Chorus technicians can lay in soft surfaces and across concrete paths etc via slot trenching. This is one of the free installation methods so is probably the quickest/easiest option.

Thanks for your response - the last option is all I need. I've obviously been asking the wrong question: The drop point doesn't matter, it's where the fiber cable ends up that's important. BTW, there are no concrete drives or paths to traverse.

So, who do I contact to arrange for this alternative?

Trump crowned? No faux King way!

cyril7

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#2945874 24-Jul-2022 13:09

geekIT:

Snip

Thanks for your response - the last option is all I need. I've obviously been asking the wrong question: The drop point doesn't matter, it's where the fiber cable ends up that's important. BTW, there are no concrete drives or paths to traverse.

So, who do I contact to arrange for this alternative?

Hi, I recommend a local sparkie or data cabler to do the task, purhaps even a general handy man who is up to it. As mentioned, is there under floor access, or is it too tight or a concrete slab. If there is access then the Chorus installers should be happy to run the internal run under the house. Alternatively have a 20mm conduit path with draw wire run in advance around the house. And finally as Wheelbarrow states, the Chorus techs may be happy to run the micro duct around the perimeter of the house as part of the install, it all depends on how many obsticals.

Also if there are no drives or concrete to contend with, it may be possible to intercept the current copper duct from the street inline with the front of the house and save trenching back from the current ETP to the front of the house then around to the right.

Cyril

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