Can Chorus ask you to install conduits yourself?

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dadilala

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#311691 7-Feb-2024 16:23

We are helping an elderly man upgrade his connection to Fibre.

After the contractor did their initial scoping, they said that conduit is needed to connect the ETP to the ONT, as there is only concrete/rock between the ETP to the house (which I assume they mean that they need the conduit to safely protect the cables to the house.)
The conduit needed is well within 200metres, probably around 50metres, winding around the property and garden.

Is the elderly man meant to pay for this conduit himself, and is it not Chorus' responsibility to install the conduit? I would assume that many houses would not have a "garden digging" option. It seems strange to me that they would not provide this as a part of the installation.

If this is Chorus' responsibility, who should I complain to? I tried calling Chorus, but because their provider is not a big provider, the options just fade out, and they ask you to contact the ISP instead. I'm a bit confused as to where I can make this complaint. The contractor seems intent on not providing the conduit themselves.

Bung

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#3192014 7-Feb-2024 16:55

Did you get this story first hand? The ETP when installed should already be on the outside of the house. Is the preferred location for the ONT some distance inside the house rather than for example directly inside the ETP location?

nztim

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#3192020 7-Feb-2024 17:05

Chorus must provide a free install; this could be a shallow cut in the concrete and/or tacked along the fence.

If the end user wants anything over and above what is free they have to pay

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

K8Toledo

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#3192083 7-Feb-2024 18:58

dadilala:

We are helping an elderly man upgrade his connection to Fibre.

After the contractor did their initial scoping, they said that conduit is needed to connect the ETP to the ONT, as there is only concrete/rock between the ETP to the house (which I assume they mean that they need the conduit to safely protect the cables to the house.)
The conduit needed is well within 200metres, probably around 50metres, winding around the property and garden.

Is the elderly man meant to pay for this conduit himself, and is it not Chorus' responsibility to install the conduit? I would assume that many houses would not have a "garden digging" option. It seems strange to me that they would not provide this as a part of the installation.

If this is Chorus' responsibility, who should I complain to? I tried calling Chorus, but because their provider is not a big provider, the options just fade out, and they ask you to contact the ISP instead. I'm a bit confused as to where I can make this complaint. The contractor seems intent on not providing the conduit themselves.

As above. The fibre install is free, how Chorus (or NorthPower) achieve this is not your concern. So the short answer to your question, is no.

Chorus contractors are generally lazy and/or ignorant in my experience.

Btw, I just saw this on Reddit UCG, Chorus’s main subcontractor for fibre is in liquidation . That didn't last long - Chorus ditched VisionStream for UCG in 2022.

Maybe UCG can't afford the conduit. :D

Lias

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#3192107 7-Feb-2024 20:16

Paging @ChorusNZ @Wheelbarrow01

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.

Jase2985

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#3192109 7-Feb-2024 20:20

i feel like some of the story is missing or lost in communication

cyril7

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#3192127 7-Feb-2024 20:41

As I recall the etp to ont is quite limited in how far a free I stall will go. I have countless installs where the client via me or other independent contractor has paid for a pathway from etp to ont to make an installation work. Chorus have always been happy to use whatever suitable pathway has been provided and supplied the opti5e to complete the job.

I suspect the free part only covers the street edge to Etp and a short etp to ont path, the rest is up to the home owner to cover.

Cyril

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Lias

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#3192136 7-Feb-2024 21:02

cyril7: As I recall the etp to ont is quite limited in how far a free I stall will go. I have countless installs where the client via me or other independent contractor has paid for a pathway from etp to ont to make an installation work. Chorus have always been happy to use whatever suitable pathway has been provided and supplied the opti5e to complete the job.

I suspect the free part only covers the street edge to Etp and a short etp to ont path, the rest is up to the home owner to cover.

Cyril

My take was that the Chorus installer wants to put the ETP where it's convenient for them, probably to avoid having to trench or bore or something that will require time, effort or money, then make the owner pay because it's not practical to run it from that location to where the owner wants the ONT.

Or maybe I'm just being cynical about the ethics of Chorus installers.. but I kinda doubt it..

quickymart

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#3192137 7-Feb-2024 21:06

dadilala:

Is the elderly man meant to pay for this conduit himself, and is it not Chorus' responsibility to install the conduit? I would assume that many houses would not have a "garden digging" option. It seems strange to me that they would not provide this as a part of the installation.

If you speak to Chorus's Network Services team they should be able to arrange to get some green conduit sent to you, but no, it's not the technician's responsibility to install the conduit.

They try to follow the path of the existing copper line as closely as possible - how does the current line enter the property?

Jase2985

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#3192139 7-Feb-2024 21:11

i do know they won't go through things containing asbestos, they won't go up through wall cavities, only horizontally from one side to the other. Likely a few other things

Sometimes its easier to run conduit yourself prior to getting s scope/install.

Lias

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#3192140 7-Feb-2024 21:12

quickymart:

it's not the technician's responsibility to install the conduit.

I don't feel we have sufficient detail to for you to say that with any surety. Because there are a lot of circumstances where yes, it IS the Chorus subcontractors responsibility to do things, and there is a long and storied history of them trying to weasel out of doing those things.

quickymart

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#3192182 7-Feb-2024 22:03

Um I'm pretty sure they don't install conduit for free. Supply it for free, yes, but dig the trench from the boundary and drop the conduit in the ground for free, no.

Having said that, I do feel we are missing part of the story here.

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Wheelbarrow01

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#3192183 7-Feb-2024 22:04

Hmm it's hard to give a definitive answer without being able to see the lay of the land for this particular property, so I can only provide general commentary. It seems safe to assume from the OP's post that the preferred ONT location is some distance from the FTP location - probably more than is considered typical/normal. It's probably also safe to assume the house has a concrete floor so an underfloor install is not possible. And I am guessing there is something that prevents the technician taking the cable up the side of the building and dropping it down through the ceiling (maybe it's 2 storied or maybe the homeowner doesn't want cabling down the corner of an interior wall).

With these options out, it then becomes a case of running the cable around the footings of the house foundation, but if there is concrete abutting the house foundation that the homeowner doesn't want cut, then there is not much left in the "standard installation" toolbox. With all standard options exhausted, it would then become the homeowner's responsibility to create a pathway for the cable that is aesthetically satisfactory to them, unless the RSP requests a non-standard install quote.

But no matter the size of the RSP, it should be the RSP's responsibility to raise this query with Chorus in the first instance if their end customer does not understand what is required, or why. Something like "Our elderly customer advises he has been asked by the scope technician to provide and install his own external duct from FTP to ONT and our customer does not understand why. Please ask technician to provide an explanation why this is required, and if any other install options exist". Of course this requires the end user to have articulated the issue to the RSP - and it's not clear if this has happened in this case.

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

dadilala

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#3192196 7-Feb-2024 23:47

Hi, thanks for all of your input, I really appreciate it. I'm not sure if I'm using the correct wordings.
I guess the problem is that the house is situated in somewhat of a difficult angle. The house is situated on a sloped hill down a relatively steep driveway.
The street connection is installed, sort of near the front door, which is the bottom floor of the house, but the bottom floor of the house is only the garage and the front door. The main part of the living area is level 2 and 3. So the person scoping suggested that there be conduits from the street to the 2nd floor, which can be done through going through the road, garden and the side of the house (so it wouldn't be an easy straight line installation).
Currently, I'm uncertain how the copper line runs. The elderly man did not build the house, but he currently has vdsl, and the installation is in the middle of the house on the 2nd floor, it's installed in some strangely high place, and I'm not sure why they did that in the first place. There is no active phone line as far as I'm aware.

Jase2985

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#3192234 8-Feb-2024 07:20

It would be easier to understand if you took a Google satellite view of the property and posted it, removing anything that could easily identity it, note on it where the fibre comes from, where it needs to go to and where you want the ONT.

Im assuming given that the ont is wanted on the second floor, and it needs to run in through the garage on the ground floor that any fibre needs to be in conduit while indoors, and the distance to where it needs to be on the second floor exceeds what is normally used (maybe 2m from a ceiling to the ONT) so they are being asked to run this themselves.