Cable Telephone

[Zen83237]

Not a diy question but I am sure that I can get an answer here. If I am going to cable telephone installed what route does the cable take from the street into the existing telephone system in the house. Is it the shortest route underground to the front of the house then around the outside wall into the existing land line cable into the master box or is some other route possible. My front garden is currently excavated pending a block paving drive being fitted. The ground is covered with hardcore and the MOT layer. Can they bring the cable in by excavating the MOT diagonally across the front garden then bring the cable under the floor of the porch then go into the existing cable into the master box. That would avoid clipping cable to the outside wall of the house but would the cable company do anything else.

Kevin

[Brian L Johnson]

I've just had mine done and the chaps were quite happy to discuss all sorts of options. They bury the cable in a green 1" tube and, in my case, after burying it in the garden, they cut out a trench across a concrete path (albeit along an existing join) and filled it in with quick-setting mortar.

That said, they DO like to pin it to the wall wherever they can; it's much quicker for them!

[Zen83237]

Yes that is what I expected. Shortest route down the garden then clip to the wall. Although it will be slightly longer I am hoping to get them to come diagonally across the garden. They only need to dig into the MOT sub base as the the block paving hasn't been laid yet.

Kevin

[John Whitworth]

A Zen leaver? A rare sight indeed! ;-)

JW

[Lobster]

The actual distance is immaterial to them; the effort and time taken is all that counts. The cost of a few metres of coax is trivial in comparison to the labour cost.

If you do run into problems though and they dig their heels in over the cable routing, you can be sure that a few beer vouchers will solve the issue PDQ!

David

[Harry Bloomfield]

Zen83237 laid this down on his screen :

Just scrounge a bit of their green ducting and lay it in the ground where >you, want it to run. Just make sure the route is not too tortuous and include some sort of draw wire inside, so they can use it to pull their cable through the duct.

[Bill]

In message , Harry Bloomfield writes

I did just that when I was having the drive done. Ran a 4" duct under it from the side of the road up to the outside of the lounge window where there is an air brick. Then had the good luck to meet the NTL surveyor who was marking the pavement prior to installing the ducting for cable. Not only got him to mark a spot next to my duct for his access but also to put in an extra one for the annexe. When the install guy arrived he was quite happy, very happy in fact, to use my duct. So was I, no way was he going to cut up my new tarmac!!

[The Natural Philosopher]

In contrast to e.g. government departments, commercial companies are only too happy to have usable ducts with draw wires supplied to them for installation of their services.

I've laid telephone wires as well..and had BT connect them up.

A chat with the local installers will usually result in success, or at least a referral to the manager who is in charge or routing etc.

Whe I undergrounded the overahead 11kV across the back garden, the electricity company were brutally explicit. They had so much budget to underground existing lines: If I wanted it done, it was up to me to make this bit more cost effective than any other bit they might have tackled. I.e. pay more than half.

The farmer was delighted to trade a bit of headlannd for end-of line stays, and remove poles from his fields..

I provided a concrete pad for a substation, and undergrounded an incoming feed to the house and they laid the 11KV, plonked a huge transformer on my slab, connected to my cable and hooked that to my meter and main fuse.

All discussed in advance, planned well, and implemented FAIRLY well. A large truck using my verge as a passing place must have pushed a stone into the 11KV cos it blew eventually, necessitating a diesel generator the size of the garage to power the house for two weeks while they repaired it..;-)

[Theo Markettos]

Where someone wants CATV in the rear room of a mid-terrace house, I've known them pin a long coax cable up the front, sling the loose cable over the apex of the roof, and pin down the back. Minimal drilling required :-S

Theo

[Zen83237]

No I am pissed off with BT, to bloody long arguements with them this week.

[John Whitworth]

Yes, the BT link I can understand. They are the fly in the Zen ointment! :-(

JW

[dennis]

Best of luck to you, if you think cable is better than BT you may be disappointed.

[tony sayer]

In article , dennis@home scribeth thus

I'm not .. Three cable lines since 1996 and never a fault and the BB is absolutely constant. I pay for 10 meg and get that all the time..

There are a lot round here who wish they lived in cabled areas who suffer the constraints of ADSL over copper. One less then two miles away is lucky to get a consistent 250 K and on most of the time!....

[Zen83237]

Well that may be but I really can't see how anything can be worse than the f*****s at BT. In fact all this week has been good for dumping piss taking companies. Vodafone and Nationwide have got the boot as well.

[Rick Hughes]

If you phone BT New Developments dept .. they will give you grey Telecom ducting and bends for free .......... put them in place with a pull string in ducting ... you can go any route you like .... put a marker tape above it during backfill.

Usually you stop short of BT manhole and then put in the final piece of duct into manhole and pull cable through.

I run mine to appear inside my comms cabinet in study ....... BT happy to pull cable through to that .......... no need for any cable affixed to wall if you put the duct in place.