*#@!! Telstra Help

No time for woodworking. Too busy landscaping. Anyway the picky shows the white conduit of the phone line coming in at angle from the pit at the street. The house has been built with the slab lower than most of the front yard so I'm about to shift many tonnes of high quality west Aussie sand (no dirty dirt here) and put in a retaining wall etc. The phone line is not even 200 mm below the surface to start with and thats about the depth I have to go down.

So my problem is, as there is no termination at the street (the cable just goes straight through, no joint) can I just cut the cable and join in a new longer section so I can sink the cable down to the (Oh no) required depth below my new landscaped level??.

Before we get on to depth I have read all the threads and have got it. The telephone cable must be at least 10 foot down and twelve foot from the gas.

Anyway, if I can join it, is there any special connection required and I suppose I have to get an authorised sparky to do this (I just swing off the shovel?).

Regards from the SandPit

Don't cut it or you will be in more sh*t than a Werribee duck.

Because it is in conduit chances are it is not buried in the solid in the street but also in conduit which means there may be some slack. Is there any slack in the house?

Either get a Telstra person or an ACA licenced person to do the job for you.

Hurry up so you can back into your woodwork.

- Wood Borer

If telstra didn't follow the regulations in the first place I would get on the phone to them and make them rectify the problem at their expense.

You might just find that they will gladly help (don't laugh) but I complained about my bill and they credited my phone account $300 when really they only had to take off $37.

Complaining sometimes has its rewards!

WB yes its all in conduit but no slack, already checked. I can't imagine putting the wire cutters through it with ADSL active. What I meant is can a certified techo cut/join/extend a new section in without getting Telstra involved.

I've decided to run it down the side of the fence and then bring it in at right right angles to the house so I going to need at least 6metres more. This will get it away from trees and the like.

BTW, closer the pit at the road but still in my boundary (front lawn..well weed patch) its less than 100 mm below the surface. In the digging I also found a dodgey gas pipe also the same depth. I call this pitchfork depth...aahh the joys of buying established.

The last time I had Telstra out they charged me $200 to twitch two wires together illegally connecting the second line without lightning arrestors. Fat lot of good those useless Ba**tards are!. But imagine if I had of done it?:mad:

Thanks and Cheers from the SandPit

squizz, you are not allowed to touch anything on the network side of the edge of the nework boundry, this is generally denoted as the first socket or the lead into the house in most residential applications. you can however dig your own trench and tell your carrier you require them tyo move their conduit. they will of course charge you for this.

OK you buggers have got me started now....

Cut it and do it yourself...if it doesn't work, call 'em in and tell em you had an accident with a bobcat.

Prior to major reno's, telephone conduit was actually split and full of malelleuca (can't spell it) paperbark roots, and I needed to relocate it anyway. 16m metres of conduit.

Made some enquiries of Telstra who advised that I would have to use their contractor for this work and gave me a phone number. "Skilled Engineering" answered the number.

Call centre person 1 - "We have people quoting in your area on Thursday's please forward $70.00 and we will come and quote."

Me - "No I just want the job done. Laying three pieces of conduit in a trench that I have dug will cost less than $70.00"

Call centre person 1 - "I'm sorry we can't issue a work order without a quote, and that we need $70.00 before we do anything."

With that, I hung up and immediately dialled back to speak to a different person. Exactly the same conversation.

So I tried again. Call centre person 3 said "Hey if I was you I'd just get the conduit from Lawrence and Hansena and stick it in with a draw wire - whose gunna know."

Great Advice!!! So I did.

Now, how do I get my phone re-connected (not technically disconnected at the exchange, just 15m of cable missing!)?

I didn't want to go through all that again, so I called Telstra service difficulties..... "Err I've had a couple of accidents with a bobcat, backhoe, shovel and three concrete trucks and might have cut the phone line in a few places......I've laid a new conduit to make it easier for your guys to repair it though."

Telstra; "Are you sure that the cable is cut?"

Me: "Pretty sure, I've coiled it in three coils and it's hanging on the fence"

Telstra: "Ohhhh you need to talk to our subcontractor"

Me: "That would be NO if it's Skilled engineering. Hey they aren't allowed to have a monopoly, could you please give me a number for one of their competitors?"

Telstra Supervisor: (After me going through whole story) "Suggest you look in the yellow pages sir."

In the end I phoned Lawrence and Hansen (an electrical wholesaler) and asked them if they could tell me if they had any of Skilled Engineering's subcontractors as customers.

There was a guy in the store picking up some stuff, within twenty minutes of me hanging up the phone he had finished the job, collected $30.00 in cash and a slab, and I was still a week and $20 ahead of getting a quote.

I can't believe that the pseudo-monopoly is allowed to have a monopolistic approach to handing out subcontract work as well...ask around as I did, and you'll find quite a few guys with "Pit Licences" that will do the job at a fair price. (only $300 per hour !! :eek: )

Sorry about the rant...
NO I'M NOT

:D :D :D
P
Why is there only one monopolies commission?

Looks prety scary to me. If the picture give the correct impression. the austel should have gone under the drainage.

Just be carefull the fines are enormous.

It might be worth electing to locate your network boundry at some point more convienient to you. like at the property boundry. means installing a junction box & some paperwork. but you can then employ a contractor to do what you want on your side of the boundry.

Look up the relevant legislation and see how deep the conduit should be. If it is not legally installed, call Telstra and demand it be done properly. FOR FREE.

Dan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soundman

Looks prety scary to me. If the picture give the correct impression. the austel should have gone under the drainage.

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My thoughts exactly, not sitting on top 100 mm below the surface.

Quote:

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It might be worth electing to locate your network boundry at some point more convienient to you. like at the property boundry. means installing a junction box & some paperwork. but you can then employ a contractor to do what you want on your side of the boundry.

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I have got a new Madison Box and some arrestors so its off to play Russian Roulette (I mean get the yellow pages) and call a Austel sparky.

Rang the Number at Telstra today, got re-directed twice until got the right department. They gave me a 1800 number for the Telstra Cabling contractor. The call centre was not in WA and perhaps not in Aus. They gave me a mobile phone number of the sub-contractor who services my area. I ring the guy who says he's trying not to do jobs in Perth anymore seeing as he is 2000 k's away in Pt Hedland. He gives me the correct mobile number of the Perth contractor who I ring and get the answering service...Sigh...Leave message at 9 am this morning and get no calls back all day. Yep..nothings changed.

The wire cutters are getting sharpened...!

Squizzy,

I don't know what the situation is in Perth, but here we have both Telstra and Optus who has their own cable network providing telephone service.

When I had problems with Telstra I changed over to Optus, they are cheaper and they fixed the problems at no charge in the change over.


Peter.

Peter, yep they are quick to point out that the "network boundary" is at my house - where the not so underground cable connects to the house lines at lightning arrestor (on the wall in photo) and that I can't touch anything upstream of this BUT; ring them up and "no sorry the cable run in from the street is the owners responsibility". Seems that the "network boundary" shifts to suit their needs.

Telstra got the flick for internet and Fax line awhile back but in Perth there is nothing you can do about the hardware side of things. The first Telstra dude I see is going to get a telephone shoved right up his dry-dock.

I'm off to find an old fashioned Big telephone.

Just cut the wires one at a time so you don't short anything out at their exchange. You dont want someone rolling up to see what happened before you bury the evidence.

Trivia........I must have been making too many dirty phone calls lately.....SWMBO put my mobile through the wash. I told her I'd have to get a smaller mobile this time.She asked why? The answer was simple.......so we can save money on detirgent.

As Fantapantz says, Just do it. Nobody will ever know once you have buried the evidence and the wires only carry 26 volts anyway. Phone lines are a breeze. There is nothing hard about them at all.

In the EXTREMELY unlikely event that the wires are exposed to the view of a Telstra technician in the future just deny any knowledge of everything. Act REAL dumb.

PS do use the proper Telstra connectors though, they are available from Lawrence and Hansen and they enable you to join wires with a pair of pliers

50 volts dc (standard), 75v AC (ring)

cut both cables at once you wont cause an alarm in the exchange - believe me - they dont give a toss about one customer alarm especially in consumer land. you think we are that important to the carrier ???? they only alarm major sites and major customers.

cheers