Home Support Centre Consent & Access Category 1 build methods

Category 1 build methods

Whether your building consists of two dwellings or twenty, there’s some work we need to do in shared areas of the property so you and your neighbours can connect to fibre.

If you live in a multi-dwelling unit or shared driveway and you or one of your neighbours has ordered fibre, you will have received a notification pack from us outlining the work we’ll do, including build methods, to bring fibre from the street to your building. Find out more about the category 1 build methods below.

Possible build methods

Soft surface

If the route from your street to your property is a soft surface like grass, dirt or gravel, we can bury our fibre cable. We dig a shallow trench by hand with a spade or saw and lay our fibre cable in the trench.

We restore any surface we've disturbed with the same material and include grass seed in grassy areas. We do try to keep the turf and replace after we've finished.
This example shows a where fibre has been placed within a micro trench on the driveway, leading into the grass.

Surface mounting to fences 
If there's a suitable surface such as a driveway edge, footpath, curbing, retaining wall or structurally sound fence from your street to your property, we can mount our fibre cable to that surface, minimising the digging needed for your install.

We aim to hide the cable by mounting it at the base of the fence or under the fence rail. As fibre cable is very light, it won't cause any weight-bearing issues on a fence. It can be unscrewed and remounted if you're replacing the fence and can also be painted to conceal it.

Sometimes we'll surface mount our fibre cable inside a pipe where there's a risk of impact or more protection needed.
 

Lift/lay paving stones
Similar to the method used for soft surfaces, we can lift paving stones and shallow bury the fibre cable in the ground underneath before relaying the pavers. The paving stones will not be cut if this method is used.
 

Aerial
If your copper phone and broadband services are delivered via an aerial cable, we may be able to bring our fibre cable in the same way. If your property has an aerial cable for power, then we may be able to install our fibre cable underneath the power cable.
 

Existing duct
If your copper phone and broadband services are currently connected via an existing underground pipe to your property and it's usable, we'll dig at each end of the pipe and pull our fibre cable through. This work is carried out on soft surfaces only such as grass or dirt.