Does going UFB require re-wiring within the house ?

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lissie

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#115704 3-Apr-2013 22:21

OK we have a 2005 townhouse which Telecom says we can now get UFB to - I should hope so we've been dodging the Chorus guys for a couple of months as they did the street.

Currently the telecom (underground) cable comes out on the southern side of the property - by the kitchen. What I don't understand is what is required for cabling the property within the house. As it's a fairly new place I don't really want to end up with ugly plastic channels all around the place.

According to telecom most people would have the fibre router placed near the TV. Why? We have Freeview from the roof antennae and even if we had Sky it would still be an antennae - which currently has outlets in the living room and master bedroom. I can't see anyone launching cable TV anytime in NZ - or is that now on the cards?

My existing wireless modem is in an upstairs bedroom which I use for an office (I work from home). It covers the house - but I prefer it in the room, so I can reach over and reboot as required. I assume fibre will also need an occasional reboot - so is there any issue with having the ONT box in a first floor bedroom (it has an external south facing wall too).

I presume I'll need a new wireless router - or is that part of the telecom package (they seem unclear on that).

When the copper goes away (this year?) What's the deal with phones. Currently we have 2 one upstairs, one downtairs - will they need to be replaced with VOIP phones? Will the existing phone jacks (in every room in the house) - become redundant? Do we need to replace these with new cabling - or can the phones just be wireless (we barely use the home line anyways).

I guess that's the end of being able to make a phone call in an emergency without power?

Just trying to work out whethher the free install would be worth it or whether i'm going to end up with several hundred dollars of electrician bills as well?

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

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#792800 3-Apr-2013 23:25

I had identical questions to yours before we had fibre installed last July 2012. If you read my write-up it will probably answer your questions:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=135&topicid=106897

The reason for having the ONT behind the TV is that some smart TV's and Set Top Boxes can connect to the internet and stream live TV. I do this already and can stream almost 100 foreign channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, etc). Some are in High Definition so by having the ONT located near to the TV you are maximising your speed. that's the theory anyway. Whereever you put it, you really should connect it to an UPS (battery backup) supply.

Regarding your existing 'phones. Well we have 10 (!) in our 112 year-old house and I wasn't prepared to lose the convenience of having those, so you need to choose an ISP that will also hook up the ONT to your existing internal copper system.

The free installs commonly includes a wireless modem, so you may as well take advanatge of accepting it.

InstallerUFB

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#792831 4-Apr-2013 00:25

Quick Answers

Currently the telecom (underground) cable comes out on the southern side of the property - by the kitchen.

Its a Chorus underground cable not Telecoms - The Chorus tech will install a new terminal here to transition from external to internal fibre if thats a practical place to put it - the box is refered to as an Fibre Termination Box (FTB) or a Fibre Extenernal Test Point (FETP or just ETP)

What I don't understand is what is required for cabling the property within the house. As it's a fairly new place I don't really want to end up with ugly plastic channels all around the place.

Plastic trunking will only be installed over the fibre cable to the ONT where it cant be put under the floor or in the ceiling or in the wall caverty (using the existing phone cable to draw it down/up etc) it shouldnt go everywhere

According to telecom most people would have the fibre router placed near the TV. Why? We have Freeview from the roof antennae and even if we had Sky it would still be an antennae - which currently has outlets in the living room and master bedroom. I can't see anyone launching cable TV anytime in NZ - or is that now on the cards?

Its only an optional suggestion of where the ONT might be placed - technology moves on - just look at how sky has changed - dont think what i have today but what might be just around the corner ' A new provider with 300+ channels, with a set top box pluging into the ONT etc'

My existing wireless modem is in an upstairs bedroom which I use for an office (I work from home). It covers the house - but I prefer it in the room, so I can reach over and reboot as required. I assume fibre will also need an occasional reboot - so is there any issue with having the ONT box in a first floor bedroom (it has an external south facing wall too).

I presume I'll need a new wireless router - or is that part of the telecom package (they seem unclear on that).

The ONT can be placed anywhere (in reason - not wet areas, not under fllor or in ceiling etc) the unit and the fibre is fixed (it cant be just unpluged and moved. If you need to make an additional connection to it in the future then you will either have to pay to have it moved or run new cabling to its location.

a normal network cable (cat5e etc) is all that is required to connect between the ONT and a RGW ( Router) so the router can go anywhere - like in your room upstairs where you existing modem/router is.

If the router is not being located next to the ONT - then the cost and instalation of network cableing is aditional to the free install.

Most providers are at present supplying new routers to replace your existing modem/router (as most old ones are not compatable as they require an ADSL connection)

When the copper goes away (this year?) What's the deal with phones. Currently we have 2 one upstairs, one downtairs - will they need to be replaced with VOIP phones? Will the existing phone jacks (in every room in the house) - become redundant? Do we need to replace these with new cabling - or can the phones just be wireless (we barely use the home line anyways).

The cable run from the FTB to the ONT is hybrid (both fibre and copper) this is so your existing phone jacks can be backfeed from the ONT ATA (phone ports) or from your RGW ATA ports or similar devise ports, via the FTB/ETP and your existing phones will work like normal

I guess that's the end of being able to make a phone call in an emergency without power?

install you own small UPS or use a cellphone :-)

Just trying to work out whethher the free install would be worth it or whether i'm going to end up with several hundred dollars of electrician bills as well?

Free install of UFB connection now or possibly expensive install of UFB connection after 2015 (that is when Chorus have agreed to the free installs)

If you dont have network cableing already installed then either way sooner or later you may need a cabler to do some work for you.

Note - I was going to make a not so kind comment about some Electricians but I didnt
--

Edits made to fix spelling and other minor errors and missing words

sbiddle

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#792839 4-Apr-2013 06:19

The TV is considered to be the "hub" of the home and the reality being that video does make up a large chunk of internet usage for many people and this is only going to grow in the future. It makes sence to locate the ONT near this as there are typically multiple Ethernet capable devices already near the TV.

You can put it virtually anywhere you want, but as a default location the TV is the most logical.

lissie

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#792851 4-Apr-2013 06:51

Thanks guys - this makes it a lot clearer!

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lissie

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#792857 4-Apr-2013 07:06

Oh well apparently not - yesterday according to the telecom site I could get fibre - today - no I can't :-( not sure what happened overnight!

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DarthKermit

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#793518 4-Apr-2013 21:45

Do you already have a wired network in your house? You need one to make the most of the speed UFB will give you.

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Zeon

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#793522 4-Apr-2013 21:49

If you have a 2005 house you may have structured cabling. DO you know if all the cables go back to one point? If so that point is the best place for the ONT and your other core network devices like router/switch.

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DarthKermit

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#793524 4-Apr-2013 21:50

Zeon: If you have a 2005 house you may have structured cabling. DO you know if all the cables go back to one point? If so that point is the best place for the ONT and your other core network devices like router/switch.

She may only have Cat 3 phone cabling, not Cat 5e or better.

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Ropata

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#793543 4-Apr-2013 22:07

lissie: Oh well apparently not - yesterday according to the telecom site I could get fibre - today - no I can't :-( not sure what happened overnight!

I have just had this problem with a new house build i am currently Doing (builder not owner) I have been in a loop between Telecom and Chorus over it for weeks. It ended yesterday with the chorus tech telling me that actually the address I was working on couldn't get fibre. This is while i was leaning on a massive sign right out side my job that says "Aotea is fibre ready". The only good that came from it is that I managed to flag down a Chorus van a while back and the guy gave me a reel of hybrid cable to run behind the Gib board as he said he was more than likely doing the install and it would be much neater and easier than running conduit around the garage. My own conclusion Is that Chorus have got no interest in open trenches and ease of install when the whole process is basically charge up to the government.

kornflake

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#793579 4-Apr-2013 22:35

what happens re the costs after 2015. good show chorus, for those of us that will not be in reach of ufb, until after 2015.

lissie

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#793602 4-Apr-2013 23:01

DarthKermit:
Zeon: If you have a 2005 house you may have structured cabling. DO you know if all the cables go back to one point? If so that point is the best place for the ONT and your other core network devices like router/switch.

She may only have Cat 3 phone cabling, not Cat 5e or better.

The cabling was done on the cheap by a developer - I think it's just phone and TV aerial cabling. As of right now I can't see that I'd need anything more than wifi access. Unless someone is going to start offering cable TV for free, which is all I'd pay for it, I can't see us using it for TV

I got an email back within hours - we are having the install done next week - very quick! I'm guessing most consumers really can't see why they'd need firbre - unless they have mutlple people playing games and watching youtube simultaneously - its seems a bit of a technology looking for an application in NZ at the moment.

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DarthKermit

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#793950 5-Apr-2013 16:22

If you're going to hook up your new UFB connection to a wireless router, you won't see much or any speed advantage over ADSL. The wifi part of your connection is the speed bottle neck.

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sbiddle

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#793971 5-Apr-2013 16:44

kornflake: what happens re the costs after 2015. good show chorus, for those of us that will not be in reach of ufb, until after 2015.

I guess the question is "who should fund installs?"

With many installs currently running to $3k + (this is in addition to the ~$3k per house to actually run the fibre past) you're looking at $6k per house to give somebody a UFB connection.

kornflake

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#794010 5-Apr-2013 18:25

at 6k, ADSL is fine for me, the childrens (future plans) teachers will just have to accept we dnt have UFB.

gmball

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#794029 5-Apr-2013 19:33

I am in a similar boat, with UFB install scheduled for next week.

A fairly modern property, brick and tile, built in 2004, but no internal star wiring box or central point. Possibly something located in the internal roof area.

My phone jackpoints only accept small plugs on the inside, or Network cable plugs, and there are 8 visible pins, can I assume that my cabling would be Cat5 or newer?

Any idea's on the cost of adding a central star wiring box and terminating all cabling to one location, based on a single level 4 bedroom home/concrete floor?
Any approx $ figures based on past experience, would we be talking hundred's or thousands?

I can definitely see benefits in this prior to installing UFB, as it would enable me to have the Chorus ONT located in the same box.
It would enable me to make all phone points live for high speed UFB rather than relying on wireless.

Cheers,
Greg

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