Telstra conduit unsuitable for > 60 metre length?

SamfordValley · Jun 17, 2012 12:18 pm

Before we contracted our builder, our electrician laid telstra conduit (20 to 25mm ?) in the same trench as our electricity.

I got a call from the company that does the phone lines for my builder. The company is heq.com.au.

They said that since our house and telstra pit are just over 60 metres apart, they are unable to use the conduit as they need to lay a thicker cable. They say they will trench it out again and lay 'cable-in-trench' without conduit.

Does anyone know if this is correct, or has any documentation about this? I would of course prefer to avoid this.

What happens when NBN fibre comes to our neighbourhood in the future, can we use the existing conduit, or have to retrench again?

I just want to get some info together for when I call them up to ask the same questions.

greenfish · Jun 17, 2012 1:51 pm

MY DH who does phone cabling as his profession says

'I haven't heard of this, not that I am involved in 'lead-in' work much. Even if it is thick '0.90' two pair cable I would have thought it would still fit in a Telstra 20mm or normal 25mm (one measures the internal diameter and the other the external but both are very similar), and be preferable to direct buried. As I said earlier though I don't deal much with this side of things'

barkly · Jun 17, 2012 3:09 pm

Ask them the outside diameter of the lead in cable they intend to use. I suspect it should be no greater than that of some twin power flex cable and will easily go into a 20 mm internal diameter pipe. I think you are being "had" - they want to charge you for ditching the trench which IMO is unnecessary. And ask them when they pull in the cable into your pipe to also include a drawstring as well so that when the optic cable comes along it will be an easy matter for that to be drawn into the same conduit. Get some light weight synthetic tine/string from Bunnings and give it to them to use other wise they will charge you for that as well.

barkly

edit: I should have added. If they say the pipe will not be big enough for both phone lead in and optic say that the phone cable can be pulled out and replaced with the optic. (The copper lead-in will be redundant when the optic comes unless the libs when they get in power change the NBN to a fibre to the node network (FTTN instead of FTTH) whereupon the copper leadin will not be redundant.)

high hopes · Jun 17, 2012 3:27 pm

unless regs have changed dramatically since I left Telstra 4 years ago sounds like crap-- 60mtrs is nothing--even with broadband cable can run something like 5k before there is any problem.---CABLE NEEDS TO BE IN CONDUIT--GIVES PROTECTION FROM DAMAGE AND ALLOWS UPGRADE, REPLACEMENT ETC.
let us know result
john

paulw11 · Jun 17, 2012 3:41 pm

Hi

I am on an acreage - the telephone cable runs approximately 100m from the pit at the front gate to our house.

The Telstra contractor (Silcar) ran the cable in the electricity trench but conduit was not used. In rural situations such as mine they use 10 pair hard jacket direct bury cable. The unused pairs are connected to the electrical earth at the switchboard for added lightning protection.

Paul

high hopes · Jun 17, 2012 4:27 pm

hi paul
they use that method because its cheaper and quicker, if you get hit by lightning your cable will get blown to bits and they will have to re-trench it, hard jacket cable ants eat it for breakfast-- sorry mate all bad news, but the good news is that if the network boundary is the first phone point it may not cost anything to have it replaced.
john

paulw11 · Jun 18, 2012 10:48 am

The network boundary in my case is the NTD, but this is still after the underground lead in. My understanding is that the earthing isn't to protect against a direct lightning strike, but rather induced currents from a nearby strike.

Ants may get it, but at 650mm down they will have to be pretty determined.

Anyway, the issue for the original poster is that their builder should have contacted Telstra before installing the conduit, as they would have advised what they required as per the Telstra Smart Community information site for builders.

Paul

SamfordValley · Jun 18, 2012 10:49 am

I haven't been able to get a hold of the lady that told me this stuff, she's away today.

I rang telstra and they put me through to the principal contractor, ServiceStream, and they say that what they're talking about is "Long lead in" which only applies for distances over 450 metres. They tell me a 20mm conduit should be "good to go".

So hopefully I can convince the lady not to charge me for a new trench and thicker cable. I think I should send my site supervisor an email informing him of this, because the lady sent him out there today to measure the distance to see if it's over 60m (I know it is).

SamfordValley · Jun 18, 2012 11:05 am

Called the SS, he says it's up to the contractor, they have to do what they need to guarantee their own work.

Oh well I'll talk to them again tomorrow.

B STAR · Jun 18, 2012 2:16 pm

It looks like the standard cable is to long to pull through the conduct. There is no way the telstra guys can pull a cable through unless there is a fraw string. There is a good chance this is why they cant use the conduct.

SamfordValley · Jun 18, 2012 2:31 pm

Of course theres a draw string

high hopes · Jun 19, 2012 8:29 am

samford, unless they have a very good argument, push for them to use existing conduit.In the event of a storm if your cable is damaged you could be out of order for weeks while they wait for the trenching crew to be available--it happens!!

paul your information is correct, the district I used to work in was lightning prone cable always in conduit with lightning protection at the house. Makes no difference if the strike is close to premises, everything gets destroyed I've even seen a hole blown in concrete ---Ants unlikely but does happen also depends how house is built--bearer joist or slab.

b star--standard cable 250m roll and can be rodded through conduit so shouldn't be problem (in theory)

buildind sux always something to stress about aaahh

john

SamfordValley · Jun 19, 2012 11:20 am

Well I called her and she said it was "telstra requirements" to use 10 pair hard jacket for over 60m.
I certainly haven't been able to find that information from telstra anywhere. And I told her what servicestream said, and she said they were correct but not correct?
And yes it will cost us money to do this, whereas our allowances had already covered phone line installation if it was as normal.

phippsy · Jun 19, 2012 12:39 pm

I can't help other than to ask, if Telstra/Servicestream have told you it'll be fine, and the builder is telling you it is a Telstra requirment, then I would be asking the builder to show proof, paperwork or something from Telstra to backup their claim.

SamfordValley · Jun 19, 2012 12:58 pm

I called ServiceStream again and got to speak to someone that sounded quite knowledgeable and experienced. He said that this policy telstra has to lay thick direct bury cable in rural areas is supposed to make things cheaper and easier for people. If you've already gone to the expense of laying conduit then they should accept it. He is going to make a phone call and hopefully sort it out for me.

Earlier I tried to get a second opinion from Silcar, but didn't learn anything because as soon as I mentioned the house wasn't actually completed I wasn't allowed to talk. :/

barkly · Jun 19, 2012 8:11 pm

I would be cancelling the phone service through your builder. And then as soon as you get handover apply for the phone through normal Telstra channels and when the contractor comes to install advise of your existing pipe system. He will be delighted.

barkly

SamfordValley · Jun 22, 2012 4:11 pm

Yeah I considered that if we hit a roadblock with them, but there aren't many other options in our area, and apparently you're not really allowed to choose your contractor (according to ServiceStream). Besides, HEQ are giving me a great price on my data cabling

As long as I can use the conduit we went to the cost/effort of getting put in, say for NBN in the future, then it won't be a total loss.

Anyways, they're going to go out and take a look at it next week, so we'll see what they say.