Nah - who's going to know? + stength in depth

[David WE Roberts]

We are digging up the front garden to extend the drive, and using a mini- digger.

Virgin cable connection from the road to the house under the area (hand up to forgetting it was there, however....).

At the house end you can see green trunking - like a big green hose pipe.

At the wall end you can also see trunking.

Builders used the mini-digger to pull out a tree stump.

Oops! Broken cable.

Further investigation shows that the first foot or so is in trunking.

The trunking stops, the cable goes up and over the tree roots, almost to the surface, then dips down again.

After that, up to the existing path, bare cable is laid in the soil at a reasonable depth (digger didn't go down that far) but no green trunking or buried warning tape to indicate that there is a thin black cable buried.

So if you inspect the installation from either end you see green trunking, but the majority of the run is unprotected in bare earth.

The builders have suggested that the cable was laid by contractors with just enough trunking showing to satisfy a post installation inspection.

Whatever, running it up near the surface and over the tree roots is definitely naughty and very vulnerable to digging of any sort.

Virgin are coming out tomorrow morning (according to their robot call answering service) - as far as I can tell there was no opportunity to talk to a real human.

The call system claimed to have tested the phone line and found that it was working. I doubt it would work over an air gap that size!

Anyway, strength in depth.

We have lost phone, broadband, TV (bundle).

Internet is now running on 3 via the AP on our Galaxy S3 (unlimited data).

We have mobile phones (as well as the Galaxy) - O2 PAYG.

The TV is also linked to terrestrial and satellite.

So all we have really lost is incoming calls on the land line and the use of our Tivo box to record new programmes and pause/rewind live TV.

Life would have been much more difficult if we had all our eggs in one basket.

The 3 mobile broadband is really pretty good, as well.

Fun and games tomorrow if Virgin try to blame us for digging up the cable.

Cheers

Dave R

[Bob Minchin]

I had a similar problem with my VM/NTL cable being laid in a spade slot across the grass - no more than 100mm deep but at least in flexi green conduit all the way. When we replaced the grass with pavers, I dug up the cable and laid on the surface so the contractor could see it and I warned him about taking care but he still managed to cut it. However his approach was to flag down a passing VM/NTL engineer and got him to repair it there and then - I have no idea if beer tokens changed hands or not but we have had no problems with the repair in the three years or so so since it happened.

Bob

PS Horrible cable to work with btw. Figure of 8 with one coax and three twisted pairs for phone lines but filled with a really sticky gloop to repel any water that gets in. Sticks like sh*t to your hands, tools etc

[Ivan Dobsky]

I sliced through mine years ago when it was put down by Nynex. It was about

3 inches deep and in a garden border, so digging through it was inevitable. I managed to join it together (can you still get a jolt from digital cable tv/phone cable if someone calls you at the same time?), and it worked, but the line was crackly as the trunking filled up with water. They did relay it FOC, but didn't do it any deeper. One of my ongoing jobs it to dig it in deeper myself bit by bit.

[ARW]

The cable will still work if you joint it with strip connector:-)

ISTR Virgin replace for free as they want you to stay with them

[Brian Gaff]

On my one they just ran it round the fence after it came out of the green stuff my side of the fence. What I can't figure out is with an upward facing hole why is not the whole system full of water by now? Brian

[ARW]

Maybe there is a drain hole that you failed to spot.

[Brian Gaff]

If you recall, when a lot of this was laid it was United Artists, and they were dragged through the media for killing trees by using those slot cutting gadgets, straight through the roots. So one could suspect that faced with a tree in the way, they did this bodge to not get done for a new tree.

Brian

[David.WE.Roberts]

Discussions passim on uk.tech.digital-tv suggest that any join in a cable however good results in some degree of signal degradation.

Given that speeds are going up every year, the best possible cable connection seems a good idea.

I would also like the whole run in clearly visible ducting so any future excavation will be less likely to cause damage.

So I expect them to run in some nice new cable in some nice new ducting for free.

Dead easy as the whole run is now exposed and they don't have to do any digging.

And yes, I am sure the country is full of cable runs which have been accidentally cut then DIYd together again :-)

In a truly professional manner, of course ;-)

Cheers

Dave R

[yendor]

Yep, used to work for Virgin (Telewest in those days). We had contractor squads paid £20 to go ahead of the installers and put the drop cables in from Network pit to house. It was common practice to use a meter of Flexi - conduit at either end to give the impression that the whole drop cable was in it. They also used to split next doors cable with a inline splitter for the coax and jelly crimp one of the spare phone cables. Then bury the joint so it couldn't be found.

If you pay piece work like that, it always happens.

[yendor]

If they don't do what you want, ask to speak to the installation manager.

[polygonum]

Speeds have gone up over the years - but far from every year in any one location. In fact, the announcement of the last increase was itself well over a year ahead of the actuality.

[ARW]

I am only suggesting the DIY re-connection untiil Virgin replace the cable for free.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 18 July 2013 19:51 Brian Gaff wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I've always been a bit dismayed about the half arsed way cableTV cable is laid.

I suppose it makes commercial sense (max customers, min effort, fix a few cables later) - but even so...

I remember phone wire coming through 1/2" iron conduit buried in the house I grew up in.

[David WE Roberts]

See the "strength in depth" bit of the OP :-)

Cheers

Dave R

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Laid? Laid? First time I saw an estate cabled up it ran from the end of one block to the end of the next one with a whole two bashed-in cable clips at each end. The place was a criss-cross network of poorly-installed cabling just barely high enough to satisfy clearance of Transit vans and nothing else. Total bodge, the whole thing. Amazingly, it worked, but for how long, I don't know.

[tony sayer]

In article , Brian Gaff scribeth thus

Yes they made a big fuss about this back then but guess what!, no trees were killed in the digging of any roads round here. Course its resistance to change the co-ax that gets BB here at fast consistent rates.

BB over fibre to the cab and co-ax to the home now some 20 years old;)...

[tony sayer]

In article , Grimly Curmudgeon scribeth thus

Some .. were installed better than others Grimly...

Round here it was Comcast and by and large they did a decent job of most all of it..

[Theo Markettos]

You can tell an NTL (or was it Cambridge Cable?) 'special'. Customer wanted cable in the back room of a terraced house. So they run the cable up the front wall, throw a loose cable over the roof, and then run it down the back wall...

Theo

[tony sayer]

Well they did have various installer firms over time Sierra construction McCourt Kiewit, Cable and utilities and one other notable outfit I can't remember, but as said they used to make a decent job of most.

Course there were some DIY ones prolly that was one of them or the punter didn't want it through the house..