Fibre installation issue, digging needed

[#1]

Hi,

So just looking for some advice. I have just moved into a property which is about 10yrs old, so fairly new. FTTP has just become available in the area when I move in in December. So I have signed up to PN fibre trial.

Yesterday I had an appointment for open reach to come do the outside work, waited in all day and no one showed. On leaving for work this morning I opened the door to an open reach engineer saying he had come to do the install. Which I thought was great. As the engineer was here I decided to hold off going to work till he had finished. After 10 minutes he knocked on the door to say he couldn’t install the fibre as they was no “elephants foot” to push the cable down. I did have some greyish pipe coming up the side of the porch. Which he was looking in and trying to push a cable down. As I was speaking to him I showed him where the master socket in the house currently was which confused him as to how it had been placed there.

Non of my other neighbours have had this issue, the guy from open reach was really nice and apologised and stated that they will have to dig up a bit of the drive to install the fibre.

Has anyone else had an issue like this or know the kind of time frames open reach work to? Should the engineer have been able to have installed the wire?

Thanks

Phil

[#2]

As this is a fttp installation there would be no wires for the engineer to connect up as it's done through fibre optics and terminated at an ONT box

[#3]

Moderator's note:

Moved to appropriate board.

[#4]

I wouldn't think he would've been able to install the fibre if he cannot locate the duct for it. I'm assuming the elephants foot is the box you often see in modern houses where the wiring comes out of your wall and down into an underground duct. I've attached a photo of mine for reference.
Do your neighbours have these?
I would have a chat with a neighbour who has it already and see if they can shed any light on it.

[#5]

Hi, 

Yes that is what he was referring to as the "elephants foot." All my neighbours have one out side like yours by the front door as do i but mine looks slightly different to theirs and is located at the side as I'm on the end of a row of terraces and my property has a sicking out porch area (which was built at the same time as the house and part of the house design). Mine though has a lot less depth at the top where the box area is.  

[#6]

If it's an underground feed the engineer has to be able to access the duct from the chamber to run the fibre cable. At my house they ran their push rod from the house to the chamber so they knew which duct was which. If there's no access then they have a problem. Can you post a picture of your "elephants foot"

Once the cable is at the house they have some lee way in where it enters the premise and where the ONT goes.

Brian

[#7]

Try and post a photo if you can mate. I'm wondering if the issue is that they need to dig around the bottom to get the cover off? With mine he had to chip away the tarmac around it. They definitely need to get the wider part at the bottom off as they will need to locate the hole underneath and push the rod through.

[#8]

I’ve attached 3 photos, two are mine and one is from a neighbour up the road who also has a porch extension. The ones on the street are all like that of my neighbour but sit higher up the wall kinda like the height Mine is at. I might try dig down and see but shouldn’t openreach know to do that if that was the case

Thanks

Phil

[#9]

I’ve had an update to say openreach are coming back out on 1/2/17 but no one can tell me yet what they are planning to do.

[#10]

All the properties in my road needed a duct for the fibre dug in as the original ’phone cables had been direct buried. For most of my neighbours the pattern seems to have been an attempt to install is made, it is discovered a dig for a duct is required, a surveyor visits and agrees a route and termination point with you, you sign a formal consent for this, the work is assigned to OR’s street works contractors, the duct is dug in and then the install attempt is made again.

The duct may not need to go back to the pavement chamber. OR installed a “duct spine” in my road so your specific duct may only need to reach this. For most of my neighbours this meant typically a 3-5m dig in grass and maybe at most 1m in the street.

The dig part added around a fortnight to most installs. There doesn’t seem to have been any obligation to have the fibre termination in the same place as the existing line termination so if you want it somewhere else then ask.

A utility company rarely keeps records of their buried services once they leave the public highway so OR are unlikely to know in advance of visiting. The chances are the cables were originally laid in by the developer and covered up, with the GPO / BT / OR coming along later to terminate and test them.

[#11]

@Philip86

A picture of the ground in front of the "elephants foot" might be useful. It certainly looks like the engineer may have been unable to access the duct as the bottom of the cover is not visible and hence not able to run cable.

I was lucky in that respect. The network install team checked all ducts where they could get quick access. Mine had a 3 inch gap between the cover and the duct so they were able to check and leave a draw rope in place. Five out of 7 houses on the chamber were checked. Don't know about one of the others but the last one had no gap and the screws to remove the cover have a gas pipe directly in front of them!!!

Brian

[#12]

Is yours the one between the drainpipe and the meter box with no visible foot at the bottom?
I can see why the engineer had trouble with it, especially with the proximity of a utility meter. I am interested to see what they do to it.

[#13]

So I’ve had a bit of a look today to see what’s going on. So the gap is so tight between the drain pipe, gas box and grey cable box it couldn’t get a foot in there. I’ve decided to dig down and see if the foot had just been burred. As from the images below the grey tube runs quite deep below but it was going too deep for me to easily dig further. While walking the dog I was looking at all the houses and out of 80+ house it looks like Mine is the only one without a visible foot. Must of been a Friday when they did it and builders wanted to get off early!

[#14]

I can't see it going much deeper than that, there will likely be a duct somewhere in there. I noticed when they did mine that the duct didn't sit immediately at the bottom, it was approximately 200 mm from the wall so would've been impossible to push a rod into it without removing the foot.
I'm sure there won't be a problem here judging by your photos, it will just be a case of digging a little deeper.

[#15]

Looking at the photos you posted previously, especially the one of your neighbours house I suggest there is indeed potential for a serious access problem. The gas utility box could well have "sealed" the largish "foot" of the "elephants foot" in place.

If they can get down to the top of the "foot", remove the covers leading to it and prise it a "bit" away from the wall then they might get lucky.

Your neighbours house looks to be the same set up as yours apart from the "elephants foot" is on the other side of the drainpipe. However, the phone cable itself goes behind the pipe so may well enter the house in the same relative position as  yours.

Brian