Main fibre piping blocked, unable to install

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Main fibre piping blocked, unable to install

gathixpower

39 posts

Geek

# 180769 21-Sep-2015 12:35

The ETP and internals were supposed to be installed today, but apparently there is a problem.

Whoever laid the main fibre pipeline screwed up. The external installers said the piping is blocked (dirt or water etc) thus unable to blow the fibre cable through, which apparently is affecting several houses along my street. Have to wait for the subcontractor who did the job to unearth the main line and fix the problem. This will most likely take another month at least, since both the external and internal installers will have to be rebooked after the 10 day period for Ultrafastfibre to fix the piping.

I'm not sure if this is a common occurrence, or was it just bad luck/carelessness by the contractors. Definitely not happy about this since we are stuck without proper internet (been using mobile stick for over 2 months now).

atomeara

267 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1391349 21-Sep-2015 15:11

For existing pipes/ducts into building this seems pretty common. It shouldn't really happen with new UFB fibre ones but I am not surprised

RunningMan

5613 posts

Uber Geek

# 1391374 21-Sep-2015 15:47

Not the first time

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=152078

dan

1143 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

# 1391380 21-Sep-2015 15:53

having similar problems with a customers business install atm on the street side, more commen than expected i guess.

darkasdes2

328 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1391407 21-Sep-2015 16:26

One person supports this post

I had the same problem last week with Enable here in Christchurch, I had a 2 guys come around 2 days after my scheduled install. They got their compressor out, hooked it up to the ducting and we're able to blow the blockage out. They said it's happening alot

It's a shame they didn't come and do the internals, they still did mine and when they fixed the issue the same faults team got me all hooked up and switched in

gathixpower

39 posts

Geek

# 1391410 21-Sep-2015 16:37

darkasdes2: I had the same problem last week with Enable here in Christchurch, I had a 2 guys come around 2 days after my scheduled install. They got their compressor out, hooked it up to the ducting and we're able to blow the blockage out. They said it's happening alot

It's a shame they didn't come and do the internals, they still did mine and when they fixed the issue the same faults team got me all hooked up and switched in

That's actually good to hear, because the installers (external) said the sub contractors might need to unearth the pipes etc on the road to replace, which sounded like a big/long job. I'm really hoping they are able to just use compressed air to unblock the piping, but if it's bent or broken then I guess they will have no choice.

It's really a shame they didn't do the scheduled internal installation like they did for you, but at the moment I'm just hoping Ultrafastfibre can sort out the blockage asap.

They told us the same 10 working days period for them to fix the blockage, but then we most likely will not be able to get another appointment for the installations for another month or two.

scuwp

3230 posts

Uber Geek

# 1391445 21-Sep-2015 16:49

One person supports this post

Had this problem just recently. We were advised that the fault was notified to the installation company and under their contract they had 10 working days to fix it. 3 weeks later after digging up the neighborhood again we were back on track. Speaking to the 'blow' team this is very common. Big rush to install = mistakes happen.

Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman

gathixpower

39 posts

Geek

# 1391476 21-Sep-2015 18:34

scuwp: Had this problem just recently. We were advised that the fault was notified to the installation company and under their contract they had 10 working days to fix it. 3 weeks later after digging up the neighborhood again we were back on track. Speaking to the 'blow' team this is very common. Big rush to install = mistakes happen.

I imagine it must be annoying to deal with for the fibre companies as well, considering the amount of time the installers wasted trying to blow the cables through (they came around 2-3 times), now they have to come back again once they unblock it.

I talked to our neighbor across the road, they apparently had to dig up/repair the cables after it was all connected and ready to use due to bad signal. They are still getting substandard speeds (around 55mbps on a 200 plan to local test servers) and cannot do much about it.

This is brand new property and the land devs made it fibre only. There are only a couple of houses that are actually finished/inhabited, so there really is no way for us to know if the whole area is affected.

gathixpower

39 posts

Geek

# 1398111 1-Oct-2015 16:12

Update.

So 10 days have passed, we have not heard/seen anything from Spark or UFF. After calling UFF, the rep told us that the 10 working days to resolve issues (which is under their contract) is an estimate now and the actual resolution can take an indefinite amount of time. We will be notified when the contractor has finished the ducting work, but no ETA can be given and the contractor will get to it when they get to it.

I'm sure the contractors are very busy, but we don't even know if the issue is even on their list. If this blockage problem is very significant, they could at least let us know so we can take certain actions to get a slightly more permanent mobile connection while we wait, since they come with contracts and we don't want to use them unless we have to.

xontech

258 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1398119 1-Oct-2015 16:18

As mentioned above, blockages appear to be quite common. Ours was blocked but we were lucky in that the team blowing the fibre were able to clear the blockage with some sort of cleaning cable the blew through. Looked like it had a cigarette filter on the end. After that all of the Internets came flowing through :-)