Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 22, 2010 9:48 pm Hi, We are getting close to our house settlement. Before handover, just wondering if anyone have problems with home phone line. We have been charged ($250) for a new home phone line by builder, our builder said it only allows for the cabling from the Telstra pit to the house but not the phone connection. Does that mean we need to call Telstra technician to come to connect it? Does that mean we will need to pay extra for line connection? I am so confused.......wish someone can help me..... Thanks a lot..... Cheers, Kin Metricon Amira Re: Home phone line connection 2Jul 22, 2010 10:01 pm Yeah you will have to pay for connection on top. Usually a few hundred dollars. BUT, give telstra a ring, see if you can make it a straight over transferral of the account from your current propery and they may wave it. We had our connection fee by telstra waived, but we still had to pay for the line to be run to the house. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Home phone line connection 3Jul 22, 2010 10:07 pm But we already have phone point in the home...and according to our contract, it said "provide Telstra underground telephone connection" which costs $250.... If we need to pay Telstra for connection ($299 for a new phone line), where is the point we pay our builder for it? Are they *** us? Sorry I totally got confused~~~ Metricon Amira Re: Home phone line connection 4Jul 22, 2010 10:13 pm No it's two different things. You have paid the builder to run the point from the telstra pit to the house and to install the phone point. (we payed visionstream after handover to do it). But you then have to pay telstra to activate that connection to the system. It's two different things. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Home phone line connection 5Jul 22, 2010 10:16 pm Hi Kin, You're correct. The builder needs to put the trench in from the telstra pit to your house. That's the $250. In the trench will be a pull rope only. Telstra then come along when you tell them you need a connection and connect up to their lines with a long cable. They go to your house and use that pull rope to drag the cable through the trench to your house and then connect up the house to the lines. And yes, there's a Telstra connection fee for that. SK Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34120 Handover 23 Dec 11 Squatting 21 Dec 11 Fixed 12 Oct 11 Plastered 31 Aug 2011 Framed 7 June 2011 Site Start 7 Feb 2011 Land Titled 18 Jan 2010 Land Deposit 25 Jun 2009 Re: Home phone line connection 6Jul 22, 2010 11:20 pm Think of it this way, your paying the builder for provisioning so that all the components required are in place so that you can then pay the telco to actually make the connection from the installed components to their infrastructure. Hence you pay two amounts, one to the builder for the provision and one to the telco to actually provide the connection. Our Build - Places Fairhaven 23+ - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28045 Our Landscaping - Belial's Backyard - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45375 Re: Home phone line connection 7Jul 23, 2010 6:25 am So you are paying some guy $250 to drop a conduit with a pull rope in it, into a trench that the Electrician has already dug for the Mains? 5 6M lengths of conduit @ max $10 32M of pull rope $5 (i believe the pull rope is already on the boundary under ground waiting) so $55 of material and half hour of time Re: Home phone line connection 8Jul 23, 2010 7:53 am mattkaye So you are paying some guy $250 to drop a conduit with a pull rope in it, into a trench that the Electrician has already dug for the Mains? 5 6M lengths of conduit @ max $10 32M of pull rope $5 (i believe the pull rope is already on the boundary under ground waiting) so $55 of material and half hour of time Actually its a different trench, as mains power and telephone network are not usually co-located (at least not in new estates). So if you weren't doing it via the builder/builders contractor then it would cost more as you'd have to pay for the seperate excavation of the trench as well as the time and work. You're also talking about a tradie who then also needs to be certified in order to place it to within the telco's specs. And then there is the builders margin to consider which is always a percentage amount on top of everything. I'm not saying its right, but thats how they justify it. Our Build - Places Fairhaven 23+ - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28045 Our Landscaping - Belial's Backyard - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45375 Re: Home phone line connection 9Jul 23, 2010 8:31 am mattkaye So you are paying some guy $250 to drop a conduit with a pull rope in it, into a trench that the Electrician has already dug for the Mains? That's what I think it is ... and is some cases (like ours), it's all bundled up into one nice big cost . Anyway, in all the posts further above, I believe that one component is missing - connection from the conduit to the "T pitt" outside of the property boundary!??! I thought that the whole job has 3 components (at least for knock-down / rebuild sites): 1. The OP gets his conduit and rope ("part A") - by the builder (costs $250 in this case, but often this cost is bundled with power trenching/"connection" cost). 2. Then T's approved contractor (Visionstream, Service Stream or Silcar) has to dig a trench and lay conduit and cable from "point A" to Telstra pitt ("part B"). I think he also fiddles with something in Telstra pitt and makes everything ready for Telstra connection. Cost depends on the length of the trench - can someone give some indications of this cost please? Alternatively, OP can dig the trench and save some $. Not sure is the approved contractor still manages to charge for something else and how much. 3. Then the OP rings T to activate Telstra connection ("part C"), ie. to make his phone aparatus ring so that he can talk to someone over the phone. I believe that this costs $299, for which T does something at the exchange or some flip of a switch somewhere, but basically not on the actual site. Or ... ??? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Home phone line connection 10Jul 23, 2010 8:42 am Thanks for everyone's replies. It is absolutely helpful!! How much do we need to pay for connection? Is it $299? As 2 phone sockets (1 for alarm and 1 for normal phone) have been fitted by builder in our house, will Telstra charge extra for that? Sorry for asking silly questions. Thanks again for everyone's advice!!! Cheers, Kin Metricon Amira Re: Home phone line connection 11Jul 23, 2010 9:31 am No it's a one off connection cost, regardless of how many outlets you have if they're are already fitted. But again, try to get your current line transferred and they may waive the cost of connection. Worth a try to save yourself $299. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Home phone line connection 12Jul 23, 2010 1:18 pm joles No it's a one off connection cost, regardless of how many outlets you have if they're are already fitted. But again, try to get your current line transferred and they may waive the cost of connection. Worth a try to save yourself $299. I called Telstra yesterday and organised our disconnection where we are now and re-connection around the corner for the next day and didn't even think of asking them to waive the fee..... So you are saying if you use the same number (which we are) they could possibly waive the fee. What do I say to them when I call them back?? Maybe that I am switching carriers- woudl that help Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32574 Re: Home phone line connection 13Jul 23, 2010 4:35 pm Nope, we weren't using the same number, we moved 50km. When I initially rang up, they quoted me for everything, then after visionstream had been to put the cable from the pit to the house, I rang back Telstra to order the connection. The guy said they could do it as a transfer from one home to the other so the connection fee was waived. When I said on-one had mentioned this before he said "It depends who you speak to when you ring up." The only catch was we had to keep telstra as our carrier for 3 months after connection otherwise the fee would be applied. Seems a bit random, but it saved us $299 so I'm not complaining. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Home phone line connection 14Jul 23, 2010 6:27 pm I got confused when I called telstra to connect our phone as I knew we'd already had someone out to do phone 'stuff' during construction and I thought it was all done and telstra just had to come out to the house and 'turn it on'. So the lady I spoke to put it down for $59 connection fee. But when the telstra guy came he said it was $299 and I said no, they told us $59 because the pre-wire stuff has already been done, and he explained that the $299 also covers the exchange and cables etc from the exchange to your house (in new estates anyway), but because we'd previously been told $59 they had to honour it. Re: Home phone line connection 15Jul 23, 2010 7:40 pm joles Nope, we weren't using the same number, we moved 50km. .... The guy said they could do it as a transfer from one home to the other so the connection fee was waived. This reads as if they can do it for free if you cancel your current (for example rental) connection and at the same time connect up a new place (in this case obviously new house). Is that what you were saying, has to be in the "same transaction"? So much for clear rules ... moral: ring them until you hear that answer! My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Home phone line connection 17Jul 23, 2010 9:40 pm Might want to read my blog post on this topic http://jazzandbrett.blogspot.com/2010/07/talk-about-monopoly.html I don't mind connecting with the Big T - however I shouldn't have to pay to sign up to a plan with another company! Good Luck Jazz and Brett 18m Q2 Retr3@t {Cremorne Facade} Pl@nt@t10n H0m3s {Underwood, QLD} The House that Jazz and Brett Built Blog http://jazzandbrett.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35491 Re: Home phone line connection 18Jul 24, 2010 8:43 am So, it appears that, due to their "$100 difference between the standard and temporary connection charge", the standard charge is 299 (3 months and above) and the temporary charge (less than 3 months) is 399. Why don't they spell it out like that clearly from start, and not just mention it as an after-thought so it sounds like a penalty and creates these emotionally charged "situations" for clients and unnecessary bad publicity for themselves My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Home phone line connection 19Jul 24, 2010 9:04 am We were only charged a $59 connection fee as we'd dug our own trench, laid the conduit, and already had the little telstra box thingo that goes on the outside wall. Re: Home phone line connection 20Jul 24, 2010 2:15 pm Aaron & Erin We were only charged a $59 connection fee as we'd dug our own trench, laid the conduit, and already had the little telstra box thingo that goes on the outside wall. Oh really? I found a telstra box outside my house too (near the wall attached the meter box), does that mean I just need to pay $59 too? Oh so complicated~~~ Metricon Amira Hi all I am looking to run a water line under my concrete footpath which is directly next to my home, was seeing if this is possible without cutting the entire section… 0 20181 3 48370 Hi all I'm currently building a duplex in Sydney and we need to do a new water connection to the second unit. The water main is on the other side of the road so we need… 0 4266 |