Repairing fibre cable

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kiwifidget

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#319353 16-Apr-2025 20:41

And so it has come to pass that a spade went through the fibre cable thus rendering it in two.

I have made the appropriate calls and a repair person cometh tomorrow with any luck.

I am simply curious.

Does the cable get joined back together or does it have to be rerun from the road to the house?

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#3364831 16-Apr-2025 20:54

likely a join, but its a pandoras box without seeing it

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evnafets

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#3364842 16-Apr-2025 21:25

Is this the rugged polyethylene cable that is meant withstand multiple strikes with a spade?

Stu1

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#3364843 16-Apr-2025 21:33

Mine was reblown from the end of the street back to the house, not cheap. I hope yours is simple from the road

kiwifidget

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#3364844 16-Apr-2025 21:39

I did take a couple of photos, for the sake of posterity, but they dont really show the real scope of things.

Thats the boundary, and the cable is quite shallow there. Maybe 2 inches deep at most.

Close up doesnt show the depth at all, but a nice clean one and done slice through.

When the cable was laid by Chorus they used a chainsaw like thing to make a groove in the ground. Its about 100m from the boundary to the ONT.

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cddt

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#3364937 17-Apr-2025 09:13

I wish I knew where our fibre cable was buried, so I could avoid digging there.

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CYaBro

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#3364941 17-Apr-2025 09:18

No such issues here as the fibre is strung across our front lawn high up on a power pole that I can't even reach with our ladder fully extended! 😂

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kiwi_64

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#3364943 17-Apr-2025 09:28

ouch.

I had mine damaged when contractors were installing fibre to the neighbour's house. Post repair, I received an $8k invoice! (which was subsequently (and quickly) cancelled when it reminded them that it was their contractors at fault)

johno1234

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#3364953 17-Apr-2025 09:51

Our cable failed when we pulled up the old driveway. It was visibly intact but the signal was lost. It was in a shallow sawcut.

When we put the new driveway down we installed conduit and asked Chorus via Spark to re-install the cable in the conduit as their original install was deficient (the cable was so shallow in the sawcut it was exposed).

The Chorus contractor installed new fibre to the ONT from the road (about 40m) and we were only charged a few hundred bucks. Not entirely sure why it was so cheap for us but I think the contractor was very helpful in assisting us with the right wording.

kiwifidget

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#3364994 17-Apr-2025 13:41

Chorus have been and fixed the connection.

It involved blowing new fibre down and re-attaching the conduit back together somehow.

Himself wasnt paying attention at the time.

Not sure what words were uttered regarding culpability.

If we get charged, will it be directly from Chorus or via OneNZ?

What is the recommended depth just so I know for eventual and inevitable future conversations with ISP/Chorus.

Pretty sure that at that point it was no where deep enough.

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Gordy7

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#3364997 17-Apr-2025 13:43

Step daughter chopped through her fibre cable just inside the boundary. Similar to OP situation.

2degrees/Chorus repaired the cable pretty quickly. Edit - never got charged.

Don't know how the join was fixed.

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#3364999 17-Apr-2025 13:47

CYaBro:

No such issues here as the fibre is strung across our front lawn high up on a power pole that I can't even reach with our ladder fully extended! 😂

You're lucky!

There's a decent number of properties in Wellington where you can clothesline yourself on comms cables (usually HFC, but sometimes fibre), and even a few where they're a trip hazard...

My understanding is microduct can be pretty easily cut and joined with push-in connectors quite like those used on very small water pipes (as used on water coolers and fridges), and then a new fibre is blown in and spliced at the nearest existing splice boxes - probably the ETP and a pit somewhere nearby-ish.

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#3365010 17-Apr-2025 14:52

kiwifidget:

If we get charged, will it be directly from Chorus or via OneNZ?

It'll usually go via the ISP. Chorus have no business relationship with you, they will pass the cost through -

That's certainly what they did on an OHUG we had them do a few years sgo...

nztim

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#3365040 17-Apr-2025 16:25

That must be one powerful spade, that Microduct is pretty strong stuff

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wellygary

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#3365041 17-Apr-2025 16:38

nztim:

That must be one powerful spade, that Microduct is pretty strong stuff

+1, must have had a rock or chunk of concrete on the "other" side of the spade to pin it...

Usually a spade strike would put a dent in it and push it deeper into the ground,

saf

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#3365043 17-Apr-2025 16:43

wellygary:

kiwifidget:

If we get charged, will it be directly from Chorus or via OneNZ?

It'll usually go via the ISP. Chorus have no business relationship with you, they will pass the cost through -

That's certainly what they did on an OHUG we had them do a few years sgo...

Just correcting this a bit, when Chorus charge as a result of what's deemed "Network damage", they will bill who they believe caused the damage, directly, and not through an ISP.

When it's something planned, such as planned reinstatement works, additional ONT, OHUG etc, that's all billed through the ISP, as it's initiated on the ISP side through a service order to the LFC.

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