Fibre Optic Cabling

High-speed Fibre Optic connectivity is no longer the reserve for global high bandwidth communications. In fact, it’s coming to your door soon thanks to the NBN. With bandwidths and speed of 40Gig and 100Gig which are far in excess of traditional copper cables of Cat 6A & Cat 6.

Fibre installation process

Agree your install plan

We’ll come to your place to talk through the work required and will agree on a plan which you’ll sign. This covers everything we need to do to get you connected to fibre.

Build your fibre

We build the fibre from the street to a small box on the outside of your house called an external termination point. You don’t need to be home but we’ll need to be able to reach you by phone.

Connect to our network

We then connect the fibre to another small box called the optical network terminal (or ONT) inside your house. You will need to be home for this visit as we’ll be working inside.

Multi Dwelling Unit (MDU):

• Creating a pathway for the ducting system from street into the building
• Hauling Fibre cables into buildings or apartments
• Splicing & Jointing the fibre at Telecom room
• Indoor installation into riser and customer premises
• Provisioning the customer onto the nbn network

To connect properties such as apartments or units to our fibre network, we have to do some build work in areas that are shared by multiple residents. We need to notify your neighbours of this planned work and, in some instances, we may need them to give consent before getting started.

What’s the process?
A fibre order triggers the process. First we visit the property to determine what work needs to be completed in common areas to bring our fibre network from the street to your building. Each job is then categorised according to its level of impact.

We’ll send a notification pack to all residents in the building, letting them know what category the work is and how we plan on completing it. In some instances, we will require consent before we can begin.

Pre-consenting
Pre-consenting means there is reduced lag time between when we receive an order for fibre at your property and when we can start the installation. Typically the install process is triggered by an order being placed, then consents being sought. Only when consents have been received can the installation process begin. However, by pre-consenting your building before an order is placed, we can save time and move more quickly onto the installation.

Single Dwelling Unit (SDU):

Residential Customers

• Creating a pathway for the ducting system into the house
• Blowing Fibre from cabinet to the premises
• Splicing & Jointing the fibre
• Indoor installation of ONT at the customer premises
• Provisioning the customer onto the UFB network

Civil Work:

Preparing the Pathway for Fibre Installation

• Trenching
• Thrusting
• Grass reinstatement
• Concrete reinstatement
• Asphalt reinstatement
• Right Of Way (ROW)

Fibre installation methods

We use a variety of methods to install fibre and will choose the best option for each property. This does mean that typically no two fibre installs are the same so we agree the install plan with you before starting work.

We have a number of different ways that we can install fibre from the street to your property. If your existing copper phone line is delivered via an aerial cable or an underground duct it is likely that your fibre cable will be installed the same way. However we do have other install options if this is not feasible.

We need to install a fibre cable from your street to your property and we want your fibre install to have as little impact on your property as possible.

We run the fibre cable to the external termination point (ETP) which is attached to the side of the building:

• The fibre cable is lightweight, ultraviolet (UV) stable, and approximately 7mm in diameter. It’s very strong with two steel wires inside providing strength. When buried, it’ll withstand a spade dig which may dent the cable but not break it.
• The ETP is the box attached to the outside of your property where the external fibre cable from your street connects to your internal home wiring. This often sits alongside other utilities such as gas. If you already have an ETP for your copper services, it’s likely we’ll install a new one in the same place.

Aerial cable
If your copper phone and broadband services are delivered via an aerial cable, we’ll install our fibre cable the same way. If your property has an aerial cable for power, then we may be able to install our fibre cable underneath the power cable.

There are a number of ways our cable may be installed:

• Put up our fibre cable in addition to your current copper cable
• Remove your existing copper cable and replace it with our fibre cable
• Replace your existing cable with a hybrid cable containing both fibre and copper. This is used if you need to keep your copper for a voice service or monitored alarm.

Underground pipe
If your copper phone and broadband services are currently connected via an existing underground pipe to your property and it’s usable, we’ll dig at each end of the pipe and pull our fibre cable through.

Mounted on a fence, driveway edge, or retaining wall
If there’s a suitable surface such as a driveway edge, footpath, curbing, retaining wall or structurally sound fence from your street to your property, we can mount our fibre cable to that surface, minimising the digging needed for your install.

We aim to hide the cable by mounting it at the base of the fence or under the fence rail. As fibre cable is very light, it won’t cause any weight-bearing issues on a fence. It can be unscrewed and remounted if you’re replacing the fence and can also be painted to conceal it.

Sometimes we’ll surface mount our fibre cable inside a pipe where there’s a risk of impact or more protection needed such as for a school or where there’s multiple fibre cables needed like in a rights of way.

Buried cable in a grass verge or garden
If the route from your street to your property is a soft surface like grass, dirt or garden, we can bury our fibre cable. We dig a shallow trench by hand with a spade or saw and lay our fibre cable in the trench.

The trench doesn’t need to be in a straight line and can curve around trees and paths. We choose a location away from high impact areas where it’s unlikely to be dug up.

We restore any surface we’ve disturbed with the same material and include grass seed in grassy areas. We do try to keep the turf and replace after we’ve finished.

Buried cable under a driveway or path
If there is a hard surface such as concrete from your street to your property then we can use machinery to drill or dig a trench and bury our fibre cable.

• Drilling – we drill (or thrust a rod) under the hard surface to create a trench to pull our fibre cable through. We limit digging to a temporary hole at each end of where we want to install our fibre cable.
• Trenching – we have a couple of different trenching methods using machinery to either make a wide cut right through the hard surface or a narrow cut in the top of the hard surface to lay the fibre cable. We aim for the most direct route and take into account other utilities and ground features.

Availability of each drilling and trenching option is dependent on your location, condition and type of hard surface and where other underground utilities on your property are located.

We restore “like for like” i.e. concrete for concrete, but it’s difficult to match colouring, texture and the pattern of concrete and asphalt.

Your fibre order will be placed on hold whilst the undergrounding work is undertaken. Once this is completed, our technician will return to complete your fibre install.