[TelstraClear] Cable installation

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acsonline

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#11460 24-Jan-2007 17:07

Hi there,

Perhaps someone can help me out here. I am scheduled to have a cable connection (lightspeed plan) installed at my house, which is a shared duplex townhouse (2 units side by side). The other houses around mine arent subdivided. My neighbour and I share a common driveway and share a wall between the units.. He's never been that keen on any work that impacts his half of the property (we're not on a unit lease here).

I only found out about the work after calling TCL about installation times. I then called 3 different times and got 3 different answers. The latest being that a "consentor" would be sent out between now and Friday (digging on Monday!).

To those who have experienced this my questions are

- how well do they cover up all the mess created from digging? driveways and gardens in particular.
- presumably if its a long driveway (concrete with a channel for plants on either side), they wont go straight through the middle, but via the sides.
- can they not just use the underground Telecom cable/conduit?
- has any of you had problems with neighbours?

Thanks! Any information will help here - I just keep getting different answers from TCL each time, depending on the customer support person.

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antoniosk

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#58768 24-Jan-2007 20:43

Hmm, I think you need to call back and check with them - it doesn't sound right that they will trench for you as part of the installation.

TelstraClear's cable drops are all overhead, as mostly are Telecoms. Telecom will DEFINETLY charge you to trench onto you property, and common sense dictates that digging will cause damage - it's inevitable. My father-in-law had the phone connected at his beach, and was told the trench onto the property would cost $1500, but he could do it himself and telecom would lay the conduit down afterwards. We took that option, and total cost was $80. Took 4 hours for 3 people to dig a 20-metre trench through sand - if your place is on soil/clay, then the installers have definetly got it wrong.

Of course, if YOU dig the trench TCL will happily lay conduit from the pole to your house, as have Telecom. And you get to restore your garden as you see fit.

Oddly enough, the Telecom conduit belongs to.... Telecom. So no, they can't use it - major breach of agreements. Common sense says it would be good, but...

I think everyone has issues with Neighbours :-)

You should have got a contact number from the installer when they called you, along with a job number - I would call back and go over in detail with them what you want. The tech's are pretty good, but there is a cap on how much work they will do (once upon a time, Saturn used to rewire whole houses to overcome the cr*p copper. It could take days - and someone has to pay their wages....)

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rscole86

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#58770 24-Jan-2007 20:52

TCL can do trenching for you they have a special machine that does it with very minimal "damage", and any damage to your lawn they will re-sow the grass for you.

However as antoniosk stated they tend to go overhead, unless the overhead means that the line will go over someone else's property. They are VERY perticular about this even if it is by only acouple of millimetres.

chiefie

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#58779 24-Jan-2007 21:41

In Christchurch, our house is in the back section and have a long driveway.

TCL technicians dug the trench from the greenbox all the way beneath the concrete driveway, and half way through the driveway, they dug a hole to continue dug further from the on to the Telecom greybox, which passed the front part of the lawn.

They sealed the driveway (a week later) and the lawn was covered up nicely.

Great work.

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acsonline

179 posts

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#58781 24-Jan-2007 21:51

Hi all,

Thanks. Just got home, there was a consent form lying at my front door by a TCL contractor. Im going to call them tomorrow morning to find out what theyre going to do. I just wish they had called me so I could have been home when they came.

Anyway, have to get the neighbours consent (shared driveway) - maybe I'll entice them to join TCL as well! Fingers crossed - they havent been too cooperative (we are on a shared title, not a unit title so that complicates things).

;(

lchiu7

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#58830 25-Jan-2007 15:14

chiefie: In Christchurch, our house is in the back section and have a long driveway.

TCL technicians dug the trench from the greenbox all the way beneath the concrete driveway, and half way through the driveway, they dug a hole to continue dug further from the on to the Telecom greybox, which passed the front part of the lawn.

They sealed the driveway (a week later) and the lawn was covered up nicely.

Great work.

How long ago was that? I have a friend in a similar position - long driveway to a back section. They own the driveway. TCL would not trench to his house saying it was not cost effective. They also wouldn't drop a cable since the rest of the services were below ground. They also wouldn't even run conduit along the fence (which they did for me about 3 years ago) saying they don't do that.

If they have changed their minds I will let my friend know since he has to put up with crappy DSL service at the moment from Telecom.

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acsonline

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#58831 25-Jan-2007 15:19

Hi, Just had a chat with the contractor (for a company called Astute) who came over to my house. They said that they actually preferred drilling/digging to just laying a conduit nowadays (as people had complained or cut conduits by mistake when the house was sold on to new owners).

Have a meeting with my neighbour tomorrow, let see how that goes.

chiefie

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#58840 25-Jan-2007 16:27

LChiu7, it must have been... umm... 3 years ago (at least)? There's a limit of how long the driveway maybe before they consider trenching in. For my driveway, it was just below their limit. I think our driveway is just under 30metres (don't really measure)...

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antoniosk

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#58851 25-Jan-2007 19:00

acsonline: Hi, Just had a chat with the contractor (for a company called Astute) who came over to my house. They said that they actually preferred drilling/digging to just laying a conduit nowadays (as people had complained or cut conduits by mistake when the house was sold on to new owners).

Have a meeting with my neighbour tomorrow, let see how that goes.

Excellent!

Astute are a private company contracted to TelstraClear for all manner of install work incl cable - and they're pretty good.

Hope it works out

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DonkeyKong

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#59063 28-Jan-2007 14:57

They actually use 3 different installers.
Also make sure when they come to do your installation that you have some time free for that day because it can take a long time all depending on what your getting installed. Last monday I got Cable HSI, Phone and Digital TV installed and it took close to 4 hours. They have to do all the work outside ie. bringin cables inside the house - work on the polls and drill the cbale thru a wall and pipe it up to get it inside.

it can take a while - so if the tech is scheduled for a morning job - call Telstra and ask them to out instructions for the tech to come as early as poss so your not stuck around the house all day.

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#59073 28-Jan-2007 19:32

You're quite right DK - Astute are the main installer, Indeserve does work, and Downer have recently got in on the act.

My install took 7 hours - but 3 of those were taking up doing basic maintenance on the pole outside my place (which is a major junction), all while high winds roared past the bloke. Glad it wasn't me up there.

In the house he put 3 jacks exactly where I wanted, and spent 30 mins talking me through the details of service activation.

Good thing I checked - my HSI profile default was 2/2 instead of the now stand 4 down/2 up.

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DonkeyKong

115 posts

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#59082 28-Jan-2007 22:10

What dept of TCL do you work in? If you don't mind me asking?

acsonline

179 posts

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#60273 9-Feb-2007 15:53

Argh. I would use a few expletives here if I could

... Im so not enamored by my neighbours.. who needs them. A month later and still no digging (who would have thought that I would have looked forward to that). Might have to give up soon. Anyways, lesson learnt - dont get a house with a shared driveway;)

antoniosk

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#60284 9-Feb-2007 19:38

acsonline: Argh. I would use a few expletives here if I could ... Im so not enamored by my neighbours.. who needs them. A month later and still no digging (who would have thought that I would have looked forward to that). Might have to give up soon. Anyways, lesson learnt - dont get a house with a shared driveway;)

I guess this means your neighbour objected to the driveway being dug up?

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sbiddle

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#60287 9-Feb-2007 20:01

Maybe TCL could stick a wireless router and modem in a box on the side of the pole for the poor guy!

cyril7

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#60290 9-Feb-2007 20:20

Why would or could they, they dont seem interested in providing home gateways (ie cable modem with integral router and switch) hell they seem so disjointed they cant even provide a DVB-C box with integral DOCSIS modem, thus needing a seperate cable modem for return path.

I think this company needs to sort a lot of issues out.

Cyril

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