Cabling nightmare

[RT123]

Hi,

I have a physical disability so can't do anything too physical (installing Ethernet cables is far beyond me!) and having an Openreach ONT installed after Virgin Media failed miserably to fix my awful connection. Currently using WiFi for gaming, but have realised this is far from ideal (although testing through Ethernet from a device that it could be used on is no better on VM, I'm sure EE FTTP will be better though). Have been quoted £594 for the router relocation by an AV person (presumbly because the person thought the fibre cable needed moving - is that what optical means?) and a Cat6 Ethernet cable - this is ridiculous.

Is there anyone who can give me a rough idea of how much this should cost? I definitely can't afford that much!

Quote for additional context

 

[WJA96]

Welcome to London. Firstly, Openreach will relocate your ONT for you for roughly £120.

The CAT6 cable really depends how they’re going to run it. Drilling 2 holes in the walls will be 1 hour labour (because those ladders don’t unload and load themselves) and then up to £50 in materials if they run it in nice black or white external grade ducting. Maybe 30 minutes to measure cut and fit the ducting.

If he’s just tacking it to the skirting board I’d say a competent fitter could do it in 30 minutes. So somewhere between £150+VAT and £250+VAT but it really depends on what the installer’s hourly rate is.

If they are moving a fibre then that’s a VERY specialist job and I could see them charging £600 easily. But as you say, not required in this case.

 

[RT123]

Welcome to London. Firstly, Openreach will relocate your ONT for you for roughly £120.

The CAT6 cable really depends how they’re going to run it. Drilling 2 holes in the walls will be 1 hour labour (because those ladders don’t unload and load themselves) and then up to £50 in materials if they run it in nice black or white external grade ducting. Maybe 30 minutes to measure cut and fit the ducting.

If he’s just tacking it to the skirting board I’d say a competent fitter could do it in 30 minutes. So somewhere between £150+VAT and £250+VAT but it really depends on what the installer’s hourly rate is.

If they are moving a fibre then that’s a VERY specialist job and I could see them charging £600 easily. But as you say, not required in this case.

Much appreciated - thank you very much for the rough idea!

 

[dlockers]

Reads like a fibre splice job. Just ring OpenReach and they'll do it for £100

 

[Caged]

Why not wait until Openreach come to install and ask them to put the ONT where you want it

 

[RT123]

Unfortunately the living room is definitely more than 10m away they allow (right down the hallway). Fingers crossed some tea/coffee will help with that part, but idk.

 

[Caged]

It has been explained to you that the 10m thing is not a hard and fast rule and there's a lot of allowances made for customers that would consider themselves to be vulnerable. The worst they will do is cancel the appointment and ask the ISP to rebook it as an advanced install which is still half what you have been quoted.

Possibly the best thing for you since the amount you are posting about this would suggest that it's causing some level of worry on your part would be to use an ISP that will book the job as an advanced install from the outset.

Edit: Here are your options https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/fibre-broadband/installation-options

 

[RT123]

Appreciate that - but I'm thinking it might even be more than 30m as the current Virgin router is currently placed in quite an awkward place (it's around 15m just to the entrance/doorway of the room it's in).

The quote was also for a Cat6 to the bedroom, but tbh, I don't know how much of that price was based on the ONT.

 

[WJA96]

Just get 3 quotes just for the CAT6 extension.

TV antenna installers are usually cheapest.

Your biggest issue is, quite simply, London prices. Everything in London is stupidly expensive. I recruited a TV aerial installer in Burnley/Blackburn who was installing a TV Antenna for £70. After he’d paid for his diesel and parts he was paying himself about £5 per hour. A busy fool but people in that area simply wouldn’t pay more and because was GOOD he was working 14 hours per day and booked forward 8 weeks. Now he earns £25 per hour and works 8 hours including travelling time. We’re all a lot happier. Except maybe the good people of the Ribble Valley.

 

[RT123]

Fortunately the OR subcontractor who came was actually quite flexible - the position of the ONT is fine, just need the Ethernet cable run to the bedroom

Agreed - prices in London are quite expensive (I’d be so happy to pay only £25 an hour for labour)

Surprisingly, the original quote was from an aerial installer. I’ve got a quote of £180 from a data/communications specialist which seems to be reasonable, especially as the connection is still very problematic. So I might go with that.

 

[WJA96]

Fortunately the OR subcontractor who came was actually quite flexible - the position of the ONT is fine, just need the Ethernet cable run to the bedroom

Agreed - prices in London are quite expensive (I’d be so happy to pay only £25 an hour for labour)

Surprisingly, the original quote was from an aerial installer. I’ve got a quote of £180 from a data/communications specialist which seems to be reasonable, especially as the connection is still very problematic. So I might go with that.

Sadly no, we actually pay our fitters £25/hour (£1000 a week). We would charge you double that, possibly more on a short job. To be fair, if you receive the old age pension and you live in Thetford, I don’t charge at all

Are you running 1 cable or 2? It probably wouldn’t be substantially more to run 2 and it’s surprising how useful it can be to have another connection. And if he’s got the ladders out why not get a ceiling mounted access point? It really does make a VAST difference to the quality of the coverage. £100 for a UniFi U6-lite is money well spent in most cases.

 

[RT123]

I will certainly enquire about the Wireless Access Point - the WiFi upstairs has always been pretty weak

 

[WJA96]

There are ceiling mounted access points and wall-mounted access points (often called In-wall or IW) and there are also free standing access points like the UniFi U6-Mesh.

 

[jpaul]

Sadly no, we actually pay our fitters £25/hour (£1000 a week). We would charge you double that, possibly more on a short job.

What kind of cable quality would you expect to be installed ?, am currently assessing shielded versus unshielded,
and what is best practice to identify/avoid any wiring/micro-bore heating in the walls, before they start drilling.

 

[Caged]

You have insurance and relationships with emergency plumbers and electricians for the time that you hit a pipe, because it's going to happen eventually. Heating pipes you can find by turning the heating on and doing a survey with a thermal camera or using a bit of common sense - a house with solid walls and of an age that central heating would have been retrofitted won't have heating pipes buried in plaster. Electrical cables should be in their zones. There's no detector that can reliably tell you where everything is.

 

[WJA96]

What kind of cable quality would you expect to be installed ?, am currently assessing shielded versus unshielded,
and what is best practice to identify/avoid any wiring/micro-bore heating in the walls, before they start drilling.

CAT6 is fine. You really don’t need CAT6A (shielded) at home.

As for how we avoid drilling into things in walls, we have detectors, there are standards (don’t drill above/below a 13A socket!) etc. etc.

 

[RT123]

Ouch - been quoted £1300 including Ubiquiti APs and replacement routers

So a question I have: could I get a cheap router (for example, I can get a FritzBox for £40) to act as an AP and connect it to the one Ethernet cable/port I will definitely be having installed (sorry I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to networking)

 

[Orcvader]

Another alternative you can try is see if EE can offer you this: https://ee.co.uk/broadband/smart-wifi

It's not ethernet, but it will be much easier to set up and should link with the main EE router.

 

[dlockers]

Ouch - been quoted £1300 including Ubiquiti APs and replacement routers

So a question I have: could I get a cheap router (for example, I can get a FritzBox for £40) to act as an AP and connect it to the one Ethernet cable/port I will definitely be having installed (sorry I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to networking)

You don't need £1300 worth of gear. To be frank WiFi Mesh backhaul is really quite effective, you don't even need ethernet. TP Link Deco stuff can use either wireless or Eth backhaul tho.

 

[jpaul]

Ouch - been quoted £1300 including Ubiquiti APs and replacement routers

did they breakout cost for just a cat6 to bedroom - does it need many holes in walls. ? is powerline another option

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Heating pipes you can find by turning the heating on and doing a survey with a thermal camera or using a bit of common sense

thanks that hadn't crossed my mind .

CAT6 is fine. You really don’t need CAT6A (shielded) at home.

(sorry didn't say) I have a run to do around skirting board that maybe in the vicinity of mains cables so wondered if that edicted shielded
]