Fibre cut by advertising sign

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Fibre cut by advertising sign

mattwnz

20561 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4822

#299336 30-Aug-2022 14:45

I thought this was an odd story, because I am wondering why he apologized. How would anyone know if there was a shallow internet cable under the ground? https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/08/wellington-city-council-candidate-apologises-after-erecting-billboard-cutting-internet-cable-to-12-homes.html

It does highlight an ongoing problem with not installing cables deep enough, as I heard that sometimes they are not installed very deep at all or installed on other structures. Guessing it is a cost saving exercise during install, but it appears it has a bigger cost later on if it gets damaged. I wonder who had to pay in this case. I guess it is a way to generate additional income stream in the future.

1 | 2

6768 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2951

Subscriber

#2961192 30-Aug-2022 15:25

The Wellington Council (and probably other councils) has specific areas on public property where election candidates can erect hoardings. The candidate is supposed to do the check for buried services. A WCC spokesman seems to have woken up to the idea that maybe the council should be proactive “We are obviously going to have to take a look at our sites ... to double-check there is no sensitive infrastructure,” council spokesman Richard MacLean said.

A wooden peg might have just pushed the conduit aside, a waratah stake is almost certain to cut through. It looks like he narrowly missed a power conduit unless a telco uses orange. I have seen some private fibre laid in orange.

mattwnz

20561 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4822

#2961199 30-Aug-2022 15:42

That info isn't in the article. But how deep is deep? A sharp timber post would have also likely damaged it.It may not slice it, but it bay snap it. I would have thought any NZ Standards would require cables to be buried at certain depths, so that there is no risk of temporary signage coming in contact. I do know that underground electrical cables need to be a certain minimum depth. Eg anyone may need to install a temporary sign. Real estate agents put them up all the time, including open home ones.

quickymart

15110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 14315

ID Verified

#2961201 30-Aug-2022 15:44

This part blew me away the most:

Amanda Woodbury, who lives nearby on Evans Bay Pde, said her son was up at midnight on Friday when the internet went down. She called on Meyer to pay the internet bills for the 12 affected homes for a year and buy them each a case of wine.

“We got our beautiful new $3000 television we can’t watch and I wanted to watch MasterChef tonight.”

Jeez, entitled much?? Internet for a year and a cask of wine? I don't think so lady. Check your SLA with your provider and talk to them for any compensation - and even then you definitely won't get a year's free internet or a case of wine (lol). Sounds like the type of customer you never want to get on the phone, ever.

Bung

6768 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2951

Subscriber

#2961206 30-Aug-2022 15:54

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/129707388/council-hopeful-drives-billboard-stake-through-internet-cable-cutting-service

The trouble with depth is that it can change over time if the area gets regraded. Even quite deep is not deep enough for fence post holes. Power and old PO cables are often right on the edge of the front boundary line.

xpd

Geek of Coastguard
14193 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4659

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2961208 30-Aug-2022 15:59

quickymart:

This part blew me away the most:

Amanda Woodbury, who lives nearby on Evans Bay Pde, said her son was up at midnight on Friday when the internet went down. She called on Meyer to pay the internet bills for the 12 affected homes for a year and buy them each a case of wine.

“We got our beautiful new $3000 television we can’t watch and I wanted to watch MasterChef tonight.”

Jeez, entitled much?? Internet for a year and a cask of wine? I don't think so lady. Check your SLA with your provider and talk to them for any compensation - and even then you definitely won't get a year's free internet or a case of wine (lol). Sounds like the type of customer you never want to get on the phone, ever.

Thats the sort of customer I would've loved to have had as a last call as I finish my final shift forever with the ISP :D

XPD / Gavin

LinkTree

Lias

5673 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3990

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2961215 30-Aug-2022 16:05

quickymart:

This part blew me away the most:

Amanda Woodbury, who lives nearby on Evans Bay Pde, said her son was up at midnight on Friday when the internet went down. She called on Meyer to pay the internet bills for the 12 affected homes for a year and buy them each a case of wine.

“We got our beautiful new $3000 television we can’t watch and I wanted to watch MasterChef tonight.”

Jeez, entitled much?? Internet for a year and a cask of wine? I don't think so lady. Check your SLA with your provider and talk to them for any compensation - and even then you definitely won't get a year's free internet or a case of wine (lol). Sounds like the type of customer you never want to get on the phone, ever.

Prime example of the huge disconnect between what level of service Telcos think they are providing, and what most consumers think they are being provided.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

quickymart

15110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 14315

ID Verified

#2961218 30-Aug-2022 16:13

Reckon eh. She might get a free day or a week or maybe a month - at most - but I'm pretty sure she won't get a year, and definitely forget any cases of wine, Jesus.

Sounds like she's just disconnected!

MikeB4

MikeB4
18814 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 12850

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2961221 30-Aug-2022 16:26

The best solution would be to stop the hundreds of political signs during election times.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Lias

5673 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3990

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2961222 30-Aug-2022 16:28

quickymart:

Reckon eh. She might get a free day or a week or maybe a month - at most - but I'm pretty sure she won't get a year, and definitely forget any cases of wine, Jesus.

Sounds like she's just disconnected!

Her request is over the top, but as I said it does highlight the disconnect, and our LFC's really do take a piss a bit on some things...

I reckon NZ needs to force the LFC's to notify all impacted end users before any maintenance that's going to cause more than a secondary disconnet (I'm sorry, in a 24x7 connected remote user world, having a daily potential window of midnight till 6am or whatever it is for loss of service is just utter BS)

I also think we need automatic compensation for long duration loss of service and missed appointments etc like the UK has.

dt

1152 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 371
Inactive user

#2961225 30-Aug-2022 16:34

quickymart:

This part blew me away the most:

Amanda Woodbury, who lives nearby on Evans Bay Pde, said her son was up at midnight on Friday when the internet went down. She called on Meyer to pay the internet bills for the 12 affected homes for a year and buy them each a case of wine.

“We got our beautiful new $3000 television we can’t watch and I wanted to watch MasterChef tonight.”

Jeez, entitled much?? Internet for a year and a cask of wine? I don't think so lady. Check your SLA with your provider and talk to them for any compensation - and even then you definitely won't get a year's free internet or a case of wine (lol). Sounds like the type of customer you never want to get on the phone, ever.

that humble brag... "our $3000 television"

my heart goes out to her not being able to watch masterchef that evening, absolutely traumatising

quickymart

15110 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 14315

ID Verified

#2961308 30-Aug-2022 20:55

Yes, I guess she's never heard of Freeview either.

I used to live in Hataitai and don't remember the TV reception being too flash (this was back in the analogue days) but it was watchable, at least.

Apple TV

Stream your favourite shows now on Apple TV (affiliate link).

Behodar

11209 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6234

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2961319 30-Aug-2022 21:13

Lias: I also think we need automatic compensation for long duration loss of service and missed appointments etc like the UK has.

Indeed. A number of years ago a failure outside my property (I think it was at the local cabinet) resulted in a three-day outage. I asked my ISP what sort of discount I'd get that month and basically got "dream on" as a response.

Wheelbarrow01

1796 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2682

Trusted

Chorus

#2961330 30-Aug-2022 22:08

I don't have first hand knowledge of this incident, however the photo published on the Stuff article shows some interesting things:

It looks like he and other candidates use steel warritahs to anchor their timber sign supports in the ground - you can just make one out on his sign - you can't tell from the picture how deep he drove it, but the ones I have in my shed are 1650mm long and provide a 900mm high fence when driven in 750mm. From memory the standard depth for cabling on berms, road reserve etc is 450mm.

In the case of the sign in the background, that warritah anchoring the backstay could have been driven over a metre into the ground assuming it is the same length as one of mine.... Of course it may not be than long but who knows - it is Wellington after all so the more bracing the better...

The pit cover I have circled makes it pretty obvious the area has some sort of underground services present. Anyone with common sense should probably take that as a caution to maybe investigate further before hammering anything into the ground.

The end of warritahs are sharp and Y shaped - perfect for stabbing through conduit as the other photo from Stuff clearly shows...

"Council rules state candidates must get approval before erecting signs on council land. It also has an eight-page booklet of guidelines for erecting signs in public places. This says candidates are responsible for checking for underground services and for fixing any damage they cause".

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

nztim

4069 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2782

ID Verified

Trusted

TEAMnetwork

Subscriber

#2961343 30-Aug-2022 23:02

Lias: I reckon NZ needs to force the LFC's to notify all impacted end users before any maintenance that's going to cause more than a secondary disconnet (I'm sorry, in a 24x7 connected remote user world, having a daily potential window of midnight till 6am or whatever it is for loss of service is just utter BS)

You can’t have that for $80 per month. You can if you have a business plan with business SLAs,
I suspect all those 12 affected customers were on consumer plans with consumer SLAs.

If one of those 12 customers were paying $3-400 per month with a 3-6 hour SLA that fault would have been fixed a lot faster

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Lias

5673 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3990

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2961431 31-Aug-2022 09:07

nztim:
Lias: I reckon NZ needs to force the LFC's to notify all impacted end users before any maintenance that's going to cause more than a secondary disconnet (I'm sorry, in a 24x7 connected remote user world, having a daily potential window of midnight till 6am or whatever it is for loss of service is just utter BS)

You can’t have that for $80 per month. You can if you have a business plan with business SLAs,
I suspect all those 12 affected customers were on consumer plans with consumer SLAs.

If one of those 12 customers were paying $3-400 per month with a 3-6 hour SLA that fault would have been fixed a lot faster

I was talking about scheduled maintenance rather than faults. LFC's shouldn't be doing maintenance that will result in a disconnect of more than a second or two without the impacted end users being notified, either directly or via their ISP. The fact that to the best of my knowledge the LFC's only tell the ISP's about some maintenance, and pretty much none of the ISP's tell the end users or even put it on their status pages, is a problem.

1 | 2