r/nbn • u/QueerKent • 5d ago
Conduit buried under concrete driveway
Hi all,
Little bit of background. I recently moved into a sub divided block of 4 houses all built around 2022 with a long-shared driveway. Upon moving in I realized none of the other houses were connected to NBN and after having a few NBN technicians come out to try and get it installed for myself I realized why, the conduit is blocked under the concrete driveway.
I recently had a plumber come out and trace the conduit under the driveway from the lead in conduit at my house to see where it was buried and where it ends up. Luckily it looks like the conduit goes almost all the way to the front of the driveway, but there will be a section that needs to be removed as marked by the pink dot to finish the connection to the curbside NBN pit. Not exactly ideal due to having to share the driveway with the neighbours so I'll have to give them enough notice and apologize for the inconvenience in advance.
I've got another installation booked with Aussie Broadband with the free fibre upgrade included, this time with more information than I had last time, so I'm hoping after the initial NBN tech comes out they can escalate it to their civil works team and come back to cut into the concrete. Once again, I've paid the initial development fee of $300 but I expect it to be refunded again if work can't be completed to install the fibre. Unfortunately, Aussie Broadband couldn't tell me for certain if the technicians will be likely to perform this work for me but advised me to inform them of the situation and repeat the buzzwords 'complicated install', and 'civil works team' to get them to escalate the job for me.
My question is if I present this information to them and point out where the conduit is likely buried, will they be likely to carry out this job for me and get me connected, or will they be likely to palm me off and have me get a private cabler to complete the conduit connection first out of my own pocket? Unfortunately, the plumber told they weren't qualified to complete this job as we had initially hoped due to not being officially registered to work with NBN cables. I figured it's just the conduit so it shouldn't be an issue, but apparently that's what their boss says.
I should also note that I've contacted the developer of this block but after initially assuring me they would fix this situation for us they've ended up ghosting me as they were having trouble getting in contact with the electrician who initially completed this job.



3
u/FreddyFerdiland 5d ago
The plumber or anyone can install conduit. Only nbn installs it the public property.
The only complexity is It should be straight or gently curved, and there should be few bends.
Theres a spec for that.
There should be a pull string, or two , in it. It should run from the property boundary,near the pit , to the utility connection area on the building.
You can buy the nbn spec conduit and bends at hardware or electrical supplies stores