UFB installation - a Wellington story

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alexps

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Topic # 162118 29-Jan-2015 19:07

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MyRepublic rang 2 days ago to tell me my house is now fibre-available. The whole Miramar installation began about 3 months ago (with a projected completion in November) so was eagerly awaiting this day.

A very helpful man came to the house today for the pre-installation survey.

Here's what I've learned:
- Despite installing the grey roadside fibre boxes at the base of every streetside powerpole, permission must be sought from Wellington Electrical Co. (who own the poles) to run the fibre up their pole to the house. This is for every customer, not just every pole. Separately. This takes 7-21 working days. And they may refuse.
- The fibre cable can only be installed along the pre-existing telephone cable. If your house has separate power & telephone cables going to different parts of the house (as mine does) & you wish to route the new fibre with the power so you can remove the telephone line, you can't. If I took the telephone cable down myself, they would just route the fibre where it used to hang. Chorus do not allow the installers to hang the fibre with anything else even if the customer asks or common sense dictates this would be easier.
- The new fibre cannot encroach on even a millimetre into land I or the council do not own. Even if my neighbours provide a letter saying that this is fine (they would), this can't happen as 'if they sell the house, the new owners might insist we take it down'. The power cable & pre-existing telephone cable already encroach on our neighbours boundary but the new fibre install cannot do this under any circumstances. This leaves 2 options - install a second pole 1m away to divert the new fibre onto my land, or dig a trench from the pole to my property (that doesn't cross the neighbours) & then 50m up to my house. I would have to do/pay for either of these options to be built to their specs.
- The new fibre install cannot even touch a single leaf on a tree between the pole & my house. If there is any contact (or likely contact with a branch in the wind) then Chorus will not install the fibre. The current copper cable already passes through a large tree in front of my house. To install fibre along this cable means I will need to cut down the tree.

So... to get cable to my house from the roadside 60m away, I must:
- hope Wellington Electricity grant permission for access to their pole that the fibre junction is already installed at the base of (they are not obliged to do so)
- accept 3 cables going into my house hung 2 different ways rather than consolidate into a single route & access point
- cut down a large mature tree

Does anyone know anyone high enough up in Chorus to make this go away?!

Thanks for listening whilst I repeatedly slam my head against my (currently still standing) beautiful tree.

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Reply # 1224912 29-Jan-2015 19:25

There are load ratings to consider with power poles. They can't just add extra wires without calculating the extra weight carried.

Also, 230 volt cabling should never be in contact with phone or UFB cabling, so you'd have to have a minimum of two cables from the pole on the road.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

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Reply # 1224919 29-Jan-2015 19:41

I live in Wellington (Island Bay), and for the first time I'm grateful that we won't be getting fibre until 2019

They might have sorted it out by then.

Sideface

timmmay

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Reply # 1224921 29-Jan-2015 19:45

I'm in Wellington, took ages to get a general agreement with Wellington Electricity to use any poles. Months. No trees here, that one's fair enough.

They put the fibre where I asked, near one of the phone lines, but I have two coming in so not sure which it was by.

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Behodar

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Reply # 1224923 29-Jan-2015 19:45

It seems that the rules really do vary by area. In Whakatane permission is not required to use the power poles, but is required (from the council) if they need to dig up the front verge. Not sure about whether aerial routes can vary though.

sbiddle

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Reply # 1224924 29-Jan-2015 19:45

Land encroachment and pole access are nothing new - they are pretty much the exact same rules that Saturn/TCL/Vodafone had (and have to) abide by for their HFC network, and Chorus (to an extent) have had to abide by for existing copper. They are also not unique to Wellington and apply everywhere in NZ, however with some existing copper there can be some exceptions to this. As UFB is not deemed an essential service, consent rules can't be ignored.

alexps

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Reply # 1224933 29-Jan-2015 20:06

Thanks for your answers.
My copper phone wire already runs with my power pole from the road. Is running fibre with it any different? Or should they not be running together already?
I realise rules in Welly aren't different to anywhere else; this is just the first time I've had to deal with them!
Its the contradiction of 'we can't do that' when it already exists that irks me the most.
Similarly, installing the fibre access point at the bottom of a pole that may not be able to be used seems gloriously inefficient.
Despite all this, the pre-install inspector was very helpful; as he explained all the rules & contradictions.

Browsing this forum has been very useful; I'd not been here before today.

froob

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Reply # 1224937 29-Jan-2015 20:38

alexps: The new fibre cannot encroach on even a millimetre into land I or the council do not own. Even if my neighbours provide a letter saying that this is fine (they would), this can't happen as 'if they sell the house, the new owners might insist we take it down'. The power cable & pre-existing telephone cable already encroach on our neighbours boundary but the new fibre install cannot do this under any circumstances. This leaves 2 options - install a second pole 1m away to divert the new fibre onto my land, or dig a trench from the pole to my property (that doesn't cross the neighbours) & then 50m up to my house. I would have to do/pay for either of these options to be built to their specs.

Another option - have your neighbour grant a telecommunications easement. Or a power and telecommunications easement to "validate" your already encroaching power cable. Not a fast, cheap or easy option, but maybe worth exploring if it avoids the cost of new construction / trenching.

k1w1k1d

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Reply # 1224963 29-Jan-2015 21:42

We have just gone to fibre and I am glad I am in Christchurch, not Wellington.
Enable ran the main fibre tubes under the footpath to every second house. They then thrusted the fibre under our drive and lawn to the house. All that you can see is just a couple of small patches where holes were dug in the lawn.

We still have the unused overhead copper phone lines hanging over the drive. They are a bit low and we would love to get rid of them.

alexps

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Reply # 1224986 29-Jan-2015 22:13

froob:
alexps: The new fibre cannot encroach on even a millimetre into land I or the council do not own. Even if my neighbours provide a letter saying that this is fine (they would), this can't happen as 'if they sell the house, the new owners might insist we take it down'. The power cable & pre-existing telephone cable already encroach on our neighbours boundary but the new fibre install cannot do this under any circumstances. This leaves 2 options - install a second pole 1m away to divert the new fibre onto my land, or dig a trench from the pole to my property (that doesn't cross the neighbours) & then 50m up to my house. I would have to do/pay for either of these options to be built to their specs.

Another option - have your neighbour grant a telecommunications easement. Or a power and telecommunications easement to "validate" your already encroaching power cable. Not a fast, cheap or easy option, but maybe worth exploring if it avoids the cost of new construction / trenching.

Thanks for that Froob .I'd never heard of an easement. That would be worth exploring if trench is the only option I'm left with. Not keen on digging up the garden!

I forgot to say there is a certain irony in asking for the tree to be cut down as it is the only thing that provides stability for the current phone line in our high wind area. I've actually let the tree grow around it so it doesn't get pulled down by the wind (as it did 3 years ago when the tree was nowhere near it). The branches protect it almost completely from the southerly and the hillside from the northerly.

quickymart

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Reply # 1225010 29-Jan-2015 22:56

Query - do you have Telstra Clear cable in your area, and if so, is it underground or above?

alexps

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Reply # 1225071 30-Jan-2015 07:50

quickymart: Query - do you have Telstra Clear cable in your area, and if so, is it underground or above?

Don't think so. We've never had it & none of immediate neighbours do. We're in a strange little semi-isolated part of the Eastern suburbs halfway up a cliff.

Gobit

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Reply # 1225117 30-Jan-2015 09:21

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G'day Alex

I'm in Kilbirnie and in the same boat.

Fibre got laid in August/September 2014. When finished contacted ISP to get connected. No go because while the street was laid, it still wasn't connected to the exchange. Three months later, just before Christmas, the exchange connection happened.

Early January 2015 got a call from ISP that Chorus would be coming to connect the house on 9 Jan. Chorus tech turned up on 6 Jan for preinstallation site inspection. First thing he said to me was "Well, it won't be happening on Friday because we need to get consent from Wellington Electricity to use its power pole".

Over three weeks later still waiting on Wellington Electricity to give consent ...

Can I share your brick wall?

Cheers, Gobit

chevrolux

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Reply # 1225526 30-Jan-2015 17:38

Hahahahaha I love seeing these threads.

Makes me feel good about dogging on putting UFB on poles. It should have never been made an acceptable installation method.

Behodar

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Reply # 1225538 30-Jan-2015 17:41

chevrolux: Makes me feel good about dogging on putting UFB on poles. It should have never been made an acceptable installation method.

It has its places. My house is on hilly terrain and the digging requires council consent. We ended up doing a temporary aerial install to get it all going, and they're going to move it underground later.

Gobit

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Reply # 1225558 30-Jan-2015 18:14

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chevrolux: Hahahahaha I love seeing these threads.

Makes me feel good about dogging on putting UFB on poles. It should have never been made an acceptable installation method.

Hi Chevrolux

Quite happy with an aerial installation, in fact would rather that than have to get a trench dug (which no doubt would take x months to get council consent to cross the footpath any way).

The bit that riles me and which I really can't understand is:

Downer is the sub-contractor which lays the fibre for Chorus
Downer is also the sub-contractor which does the lines work for Wellington Electricity
The geography of Wellington being what it is, there were always going to be aerial installations

Surely Chorus and Wellington Electricity could have come to some arrangement whereby when Downer lays the fibre to the base of a power pole for Chorus, Downer at the same time assesses for Wellington Electricity whether any more cables can be safely strung up on that particular pole.

Surely that would be a heck of a lot more efficient and cost effective than Downer laying fibre on Day 1, coming back on say Day 85 to see whether House A can have an aerial connection from Pole Z, on Day 97 to see whether next door House B can have a connection from Pole Z and Day 230 to see whether Pole Z is strong enough to provide an aerial connection to House C!

Cheers, Gobit

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