Hi,
I was wondering if anyone here would have an idea on the scenario on my street. We've had a fibre build start and it's meant to be completed at the end of the year (approx).
I've done many preinstalls of ducting for fibre to residential ETPs and some retirement villages with network enclosures etc as part of my job, and I've always been told (whether or not this is 100% correct or not, I have no idea, but it has been so far):
- If a current copper connection is aerial, the fibre connection will be aerial unless an overhead to underground conversion is completed with Chorus
- You can expect that if you have a current underground copper lead in that the fibre will run from the same position on the street
My house is situated further back off the road than my 2 front neighbours. There is a fibre miniduct at the base of my letterbox with a label on it (which I can go and read and report back if it helps). I do not presume to know who this is allocated to.
There does not appear to be any miniduct for my two front neighbours. No disturbance of grass berm etc. They both receive their copper service underground.
My copper service does not currently come from the road berm. Behind my house is a right of way with several houses on it. My phone line and power comes from this end (the back of my house). It does not appear any work has been done up this right of way yet (probably consents to go thru) however the Chorus web site does say they are all eligible for UFB at the same date.
I know there isn't a lot I can do in the scheme of things if the miniduct at the letterbox is destined for me but I am concerned that if it is it will be run along the side of my driveway effectively along the boundary, maybe slotted across concrete. The boundary is a very thin grassed area that, if fibre is run there, it WILL get damaged by line trimmers etc. I know my alternative is to sort it out myself but will Chorus contractors take note of the eventual guaranteed damage to the miniduct and opt to cut the concrete instead?
I'd say they would have to anyway unless they want to run the fibre all the way from the front of my house to the back of my house before they can get across grass again..
The street was tidied up when Chorus was building the fibre a couple of months ago so I'm not really sure if they've completed it or not (maybe they weren't paid and stopped working as happened in my Mum's street, they stopped just before her house and her and her neighbour had to get ducts put in for their houses as they were missed) but if anyone has some idea or has been in a similar situation it'd be great to hear from them!
I've heard some horror stories that's all. I ducted my Mum's install as they wanted to just push the cable in the grass and the flood of water which was caused by the thrusting of the network down her street would have simply floated it every time there was a heavy downpour, ready to be chopped to bits by the lawnmower. A friend of mine had asked the installers not to run the miniduct along her front fence as it was being demolished in a week but proceeded to anyway and when she ran out mid way as she saw what they were doing she was told to call them back later and they'd move it - but is now being told that there was no way they were doing that and that the installer never said that. So I'm just a bit cautious that's all.
I'm quite happy on VDSL but I understand that it's possible it will be retired in fibre areas and the (what seems like) 2 monthly price rises are getting a bit old (I'm on Spark and I know about the Unplan plans but it won't suit me on 4G as I use about 120GB/month on average and because I am on unlimited I don't even watch my usage and it has spiked to 300GB before)
Sorry if this is a headache read for a Sunday!
