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How to identify electrical cable in front yard?

Hi everyone,

I was digging in my recently knocked-down front yard and noticed a thin pipe there. I tracked the pipe, which led me to what looked like an electrical cable, which in turn led to a broken cable.

It seems to be coming from Telstra point, and I’m almost certain that it is a telephone. We decided to not have an house line, as we just use mobile nowadays. First, I thought it could be NBN, but when I saw it too, I realised it would not.

Can anyone please confirm if is safe to remove the whole cable/pipe or should I keep it? I don’t want to go further cuz my grass is finally set under the last of the pipe underground.

Thank you in advance!

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JacobZ

Hi @leocaseiro,

I'd suggest that erring on the side of caution and contacting your telco or a licenced electrician would be the best way to go.

Any kind of buried cabling should be treated with extreme caution and should be dealt with by a professional, or under the guidance of one. It isn't really worth the risk.

Allow me to tag @R4addZ, @CSParnell and @Dave-1, all of whom have some experience in this sort of industry. They may be able to help.

Jacob

Dave-1

Good Afternoon @leocaseiro

Its a Telstra cable, and depending on your area you may need it or not. Your first point of call is contacting Telstra to get a tech out to remove it or make safe. It needs to be disconected from the pit at the very least and generally that conduit would also carry your NBN cable (Fibre or copper) to your house so its not something that you should bury and leave type deal.

My old phone conduit was used to pull in the fibre for NBN as an example of what the pipe is still used for even if the ph is gone.

Dave

R4addZ

Hi @leocaseiro

Oh dear Yes that was the Telstra lead in cable and without it you can't have the NBN as that is supplied either over the old copper, which you have just damaged or via fiber which is normally pulled in through the conduit that you have damaged relacing the copper. You need to get it fixed and that can only be done by someone authorised to work on the network. You can't even get a registered cabler or electrician to fix this because they are (usually) only authorised to work on the customer side of the NTD (Network Termination Device) which is usually the first socket in the house.

On the safety side it is low voltage, typically -48V so for the time being you can just tape it up to stop it getting wet. Tape it up so that the bare conductors don'short out as that could cause a fault condition in the network and then get someone out to give you a quote. Don't try to fix this yourself as it will cause future problems if not done correctly.

R4addZ

@leocaseiro

For further reference, mostly for others who read this though as it's a bit late for you, You should have used the Before you dig service. See here….

https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/publications/before-you-dig

and unfortunately these things are often quite expensive to get fixed (partly due to the monopoly position the network providers are in) Some years ago, I had a friend who worked as a linesman for Telstra and he could raise faults himself and work on the network. If you can find an NBN tech who does work on the side, you may be able to use them.

leocaseiro

thank you, everyone. I have NBN, and it’s working fine. I assume it would be yet another burried cable?

I’ll contact Telstra than.

thsnks

MitchellMc

Sounds like there could be another buried cable, @leocaseiro.

Let us know how you go.

Mitchell

R4addZ

@leocaseiro

It is very rare for there to be two lead in cables to one property, How is your NBN delivered, is it copper (VDSL) or optic fibre? There is one other option which would explain why this mishap has not affected your NBN and that is 4/5G mobile delivery but that is not the best for speed and reliability. The issue here is that you have damaged cables that are part of the network and so, not your property. If you don't get either Telstra or the NBN to either fix it or give you a waiver on repairs, there could be future fines. For that matter this cable may not even be feeding your property and someone nearby could be waiting on a repair!

leocaseiro

I don't know why there might be a second cable that is in my front yard. As I mentioned, this was recently knocked down and rebuilt. I am assuming this could be the previous house connection, and as I didn't ask for a telephone line, it was probably never connected since the knockdown.

I can guarantee that I didn't damage that cable. It could be the builder, or who knows.
I was digging very carefully, and I found the pipe first. So, I tracked the pipe, which led to an open cable. I am not sure if that is how Telstra normally handles this kind of work, but IMO, keeping cables without a pipe under a front yard is very fragile. I assume that a tree root, and even a rodent animal, would damage them when chewing on them.

Anyway, I have FTTP and I am not using mobile 4G/5G. I can see the NBN lights fine here, and I am reaching 168 Mbps/19.2 Mbps, so definitelly not mobile.

Thanks, everyone, for trying to help. I really appreciated it.
I reached out to Telstra, and I warned them about the damaged cable. They'll send someone on-site to check it out.

I'll keep this thread updated.

I hope nobody's telephone or NBN is down, and if it is, OMG, they probably don't need it, because this cable has been underground for a while.

R4addZ

Hi @leocaseiro

If you are on FTTP then yes this is probably from the previous house and looking at the pictures, you can see where the old conduit was broken off (there is a remnant of the continuing conduit in the bell end of the conduit that is left). Telstra will probably pull the cable back to the pit and you may then be able to cut most of the remainder of the pipe away. If you do, please tape the end shut so sand doesn't get washed into the pit over time.

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