Fibre Optic Cabling Solutions

Fibre Optic Cabling & Installation Process

High-speed Fibre Optic connectivity is no longer the reserve for global high bandwidth communications. It’s coming to your door soon, thanks to the NBN, with bandwidths and speeds of 40Gig and 100Gig, far more than traditional copper cables of Cat 6A & Cat 6.

We’ll come to your place to discuss the work required and agree on a plan you’ll sign—covering everything we need to do to get you connected to fibre.

Build your fibre. Connect to our network!

We build the fibre from the street to a small box outside 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.

We then connect the fibre to another small box called the optical network terminal (or ONT) inside your house. It would be best if you were home for this visit as we’ll be working inside.

MDU & SDU

MULTI DWELLING UNIT (MDU):

  • Creating a pathway for the ducting system from the street into the building

  • Hauling Fibre cables into buildings or apartments

  • Splicing & Jointing the fibre in the Telecom room

  • Indoor installation into the riser and customer premises

  • Provisioning the customer with the NBN

To connect properties such as apartments or units to our fibre network, we must build work in areas shared by multiple residents. We must notify your neighbours of this planned work, and sometimes, we may require their consent before starting.

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 building residents, letting them know what category the work falls into and how we plan to complete it. In some instances, we will require consent before we can begin.

Pre-consenting
Pre-consenting means there is a reduced lag between when we receive an order for fibre at your property and when we can start the installation. Typically, the installation process is triggered by an order placed and consent sought. Only when permission has 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 to 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 various methods to install fibre and will choose the best option for each property. No two fibre installations are the same, so we agree on the installation plan with you before starting work.

We have several ways of installing fibre from the street to your property. If your existing copper phone line is delivered via an aerial cable or an underground duct, your fibre cable will likely be installed similarly. However, we do have other installation options if this is not feasible.

We need to install a fibre cable from your street to your property, and we want your fibre installation to have as little impact on your property as possible. Running 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 solid, 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, we’ll likely 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 similarly. 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 some 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 fibre and copper—keeping your copper for voice service or a 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
Suppose there’s a suitable surface such as a driveway edge, footpath, curbing, retaining wall or structurally sound fence from your street to your property. In that case, we can mount our fibre cable to that surface, minimising the digging needed for your installation.

We aim to hide the cable by mounting it at the base of the fence or under the fence rail. Fibre cable is light so it won’t cause 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 is needed, such as for a school or where multiple fibre cables are required, like in a right-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 chose 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 try to keep the turf and replace it after we finish.

Buried cable under a driveway or path
If a hard surface, such as concrete, exists between your street and your property, 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 through which we will pull our fibre cable. We limit digging to a temporary hole where we want to install our fibre cable at each end.

  • Trenching: We have a couple of different trenching methods. We use machinery to either make a wide cut right through the hard surface or a narrow cut at the top of the hard surface to lay the fibre cable. We aim for the most direct route and consider other utilities and ground features.

The availability of each drilling and trenching option depends on your location, condition, and type of hard surface, as well as where other underground utilities on your property are located.

We restore “like for like,” i.e., concrete for concrete, but matching the colouring, texture, and pattern of concrete and asphalt is challenging.

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