# Forum Home Renovation Television, Computers & Phones  House Demolition & Telstras Underground Phone Cable

## SteveAndBelle

Hi. 
I hope the title caught the eye of someone who may know what I'm about to ask because I've just been on the phone to Telstra for 22 minutes and they don't seem to know themselves! 
We're about to demolish the poor excuse for a house on our block and I'm in the process of arranging all the services be disconnected, capped & terminated.  Everything else (except the drinking water of course) can be classed as dangerous so there seems to be relatively OK processes in place for dealing with all these... but what about the underground phone line?  It took me quite a while to get the Telstra staff to understand what I was wanting to do.  I want to know if I need to get a Telstra technician out to chop the wires feeding the house and terminate them out on the footpath somewhere or disconnect them from the nearest pit or do I just send the demolition crew in and get them to do their worst?  I'm just trying to do the right thing but it sounds like Telstra can't even tell me what that is! 
Any ideas?  Thanks.

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## Black Cat

Would dial before you dig help?

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## SteveAndBelle

> Would dial before you dig help?

  Well yes however that will only tell me where the line is, not how to terminate it properly.  I'm beginning to think a physical termination may not be required and that the cable could just be cut 'as is' either carefully dug up and cut with side-cutters out near the strret or just sliced through by a blunt digger bucket as part of the demolition and a new cable run once the new house has been built.  Still seems odd to me that there's no 'official' process for this as there is with other services but I'll do more research and will post my findings here for others to reference.

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## PhilT2

Telstra staff probably can't answer your question because nobody ever asked it before, they just cut the line where it suits them. If the service has already been disconnected then I don't think any harm can be done. Cutting the cable, taping the end then pulling it back and coiling it up in the pit may make reconnection quicker and easier but could only be done legally by Telstra or their subbies.

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## SteveAndBelle

Yep, got a call back from a Telstra department very early this morning.  Friendly and super helpful, they told me that it can be done two ways: 
1. Telstra comes out and inspects it all and provides a quote to take the line right back to the closest pit to terminate it properly there.  They then have to run a brand new cable from the pit during the house build to reconnect it.  This will obviously cost many dollars and even the initial inspection for the quote costs around $150 alone.  Ouch.
2. An electrician licensed to terminate such cables (previously known as an 'Oztel license' apparently) can do so close to the boundary where it enters the property so it's out of the way as much as possible.  The new service can then simply connect back up to that original cable run during the new house build without the need to run a whole new cable from the pit. 
So that's great news.  I'll obviously go for No.2 as I can't justify the reasoning or expense to go all the way back to the pit.  Helps that Telstra was able to check the address and confirmed that we already have a relatively new run from the pit too. 
Not sure why this question couldn't be answered during the original call to Telstra though.  Odd.

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## watson

Thanks for following through.............. & the Update  :2thumbsup:

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## r3nov8or

Best to do it properly, but no doubt plenty have been chopped by diggers and left for months during construction before being reterminated. 
Your "Oztel" was an AUSTEL licence, now replaced by CPR registration. See - ACMA - Frequently asked questions &ndash; Cabling

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## lazydays

Tell Telstra where to go with their high charges and copper wire. Use a mobile phone until you can hook up to NBN.

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## SteveAndBelle

> Tell Telstra where to go with their high charges and copper wire. Use a mobile phone until you can hook up to NBN.

  Yeah, agreed and I'd love to however we need a strong & reliable internet connection at home for work (mobile broadband isn't good enough) and who knows when the NBN will be available?!?  ADSL will have to do for now but I completly agree with you if it was just for calls & light internet usage. 
Where are you NBN?  Been waiting far too long.

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## r3nov8or

When NBN comes along you will still need to choose a retailer, and you actually have choice of retailer right now...

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## Pugs

> Yep, got a call back from a Telstra department very early this morning.  Friendly and super helpful, they told me that it can be done two ways: 
> 1. Telstra comes out and inspects it all and provides a quote to take the line right back to the closest pit to terminate it properly there.  They then have to run a brand new cable from the pit during the house build to reconnect it.  This will obviously cost many dollars and even the initial inspection for the quote costs around $150 alone.  Ouch.
> 2. An electrician licensed to terminate such cables (previously known as an 'Oztel license' apparently) can do so close to the boundary where it enters the property so it's out of the way as much as possible.  The new service can then simply connect back up to that original cable run during the new house build without the need to run a whole new cable from the pit. 
> So that's great news.  I'll obviously go for No.2 as I can't justify the reasoning or expense to go all the way back to the pit.  Helps that Telstra was able to check the address and confirmed that we already have a relatively new run from the pit too. 
> Not sure why this question couldn't be answered during the original call to Telstra though.  Odd.

  Austel.. and you need ot get an Open cabler.. not all spakies are... you need to ask for their Rego number and see who they are registered with to see if they are actually Licenced to carry out Telecommunciations work

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