I've been trying to get consent for fibre for 5 years

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › I've been trying to get consent for fibre for 5 years

duckInferno

89 posts

Master Geek

#222801 29-Aug-2017 09:11

I'm not sure what stage of the grief process this is.

My location (central Thorndon, Wellington) is eligible for fibre and has been for a long time. My house is surrounded by 3-6+ properties which we need consent from. My landlord and the downstairs business actively want fibre too. Easy right? Well, the first request was declined after a couple of months due to consent issues - but of course are vague about who exactly is declining consent. I wasn't miffed and just left it to the landlord to resolve.

I'm with Orcon, who spammed me every few months saying "hey you're eligible for fibre!" - so I'd just listen to their speil and go yep if you can sort it out, have at it. It would always end with cancellation due to lack of consent. I'm not really sure why I let them try after a while, maybe I was just amused that nobody put a note down against my account or something.

Anyway the landlord hadn't been idle and had managed to manually gather signed consent forms from everyone nearby, only to continue to have it rejected. She eventually managed to get a contact at Chorus who implied that it was one specific property she didn't consider and got their consent. She also learns that the property is on some kind of "automatically block" list, maybe because of orcon+mine's shenanigans. But now things should be ready to go: according to Chorusman, apparently all I need to do is to go through Orcon and get them to specifically request that the order is not automatically blocked. I do so... and it's declined due to consent, and they still won't tell me who is blocking it. Well then.

I'm completely out of ideas. I actually got VDSL just to get some semblance of speed (the orcon guy was all "are you sure sir? did you know you can get fibre?" yeah thanks). I heard there is some kind of recently passed law that allows Chorus to say F.U. in certain cases when someone is blocking fibre, but that doesn't seem to be kicking in. I can't get any useful information out of Chorus as they just refer me to my ISP. They won't even tell me what direction they want to lay the fibre or tell me the full set of properties I need consent from.

At this stage I don't know what else to do beyond ask a forum of experts for advice. Hlep :c

edit: not sure what's up with the formatting.

darylblake

1145 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1854567 29-Aug-2017 09:32

You need to keep applying.

The law has changed now. So if people don't respond to consent requests, then consent will be presumed after a "period of time".

Sharesies

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DarkShadow

1644 posts

Uber Geek

#1854568 29-Aug-2017 09:34

they still won't tell me who is blocking it

Yeah that's annoying. "Privacy Act" they say

duckInferno:

I heard there is some kind of recently passed law that allows Chorus to say F.U. in certain cases when someone is blocking fibre, but that doesn't seem to be kicking in.

I don't think Chorus has implemented it just yet. Hopefully will be soon. Depending on the installation method needed, Chorus can either go ahead without asking for consent, or they can send out notices and if no one objects they can assume that people have consented.

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#1854584 29-Aug-2017 09:42

Why is this still happening? Has the law changed yet? It seems not.

Imagine if a neighbour could block your plumbing or electricity!!!

kryptonjohn

2523 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1854590 29-Aug-2017 09:49

One of our neighbours applied some time back - we got the consent letter from Chorus, signed it as OK with us and sent it back but nothing ever happened.

There are so many tenanted properties now days with absent landlords. They really do need to get on with assuming no objection after a couple of asks means implied consent.

Mind you if I had just put in a beautiful new driveway or boundary wall I wouldn't want those Chorus clowns just turning up unannounced with a concrete saw and wrecking it.

Wheelbarrow01

1441 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Chorus

#1854594 29-Aug-2017 09:58

The Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill and regulations require Chorus, Enable, UFF and Northpower to be members of an independent dispute resolution service, to be administered by an independent third party.

This key dependency has been significantly advanced with the MBIE announcing UDL (www.utilitiesdisputes.co.nz) as the administrator of the Property Access Dispute Resolution service.
Chorus has taken steps to sign up to this scheme and begin finalising their operational readiness for it. At this stage I am unsure of the other LFCs' progress in regards to this.

So while the legislation has been passed into law, there is still some work to do before the process can begin to be adhered to. In speaking to some senior Chorus staff, I have been told that they are expecting to have more information during September.

It is also worth noting that the rules of the scheme regarding deemed consent will only apply to new fibre orders issued after the scheme's official start date. What this means is that if a customer already has an order in the consenting stage right now, the new rules about deemed consent cannot be applied to that order and the old rules will apply.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

Chorusnz

412 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Chorus

#1854707 29-Aug-2017 12:20

Now that the legislation has been passed, Chorus has signed up to the Property Access Dispute Resolution service.

There is some systems development work and some process engineering required to manage consent requests under the new scheme, which will take a few weeks to complete.

We expect to be up and running, processing new orders under the new access rules in the first week of October.

Chorus will make an announcement with more detail in late September.

^GL

duckInferno

89 posts

Master Geek

#1854710 29-Aug-2017 12:22

Chorusnz:

Now that the legislation has been passed, Chorus has signed up to the Property Access Dispute Resolution service.

There is some systems development work and some process engineering required to manage consent requests under the new scheme, which will take a few weeks to complete.

We expect to be up and running, processing new orders under the new access rules in the first week of October.

Chorus will make an announcement with more detail in late September.

^GL

That's excellent news. Will that help people in my circumstance, where orders are (supposedly) automatically rejected?

Torquenstein

102 posts

Master Geek

#1854816 29-Aug-2017 14:37

Hopefully this helps the issues where Chorus has designs to trench through 30 metres of concrete rather than the garden or fence running next to it which causes the back neighbours to instantly deny consent

DarkShadow

1644 posts

Uber Geek

#1854825 29-Aug-2017 14:58

Torquenstein:

Hopefully this helps the issues where Chorus has designs to trench through 30 metres of concrete rather than the garden or fence running next to it which causes the back neighbours to instantly deny consent

Under the new rules if Chorus nails the fiber to the fence or if they dig up grass they no longer need consent. If they're trenching 30m of concrete then they still need consent. So this'll push them towards less invasive methods.

atomeara

320 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1855708 31-Aug-2017 09:53

If you have all the consents, make sure they are all emailed to consents@chorus.co.nz and ask them to confirm they have all the required consents. Then ask the RSP to log the order again and advise them to note in the job that consents@chorus.co.nz have confirmed all consents have been logged. The 3 month stand down does not apply in this case.