Why does the technician require access to the electrical room?

[Lucas_S]

I am having Telus install Internet for my apartment unit. The technician came and said they needed access to the electrical room, which I did not have at the time. So we needed to reschedule. The strata is now telling me that the technician should not need to access the electrical room since Telus is already set up in each apartment unit and they are asking why he needs electrical room access. So why does he need to use the electrical room?

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

Asking the technician would have been the best idea as they would know for sure.

The strata would know about Telus, and even Shaw/Rogers, needing access for problems or hook ups. It is by far not a new thing.

In general, one big reason they need access is that they are not getting a signal in the unit itself. Could be something in the unit, the electrical room, or in between. They won't know for sure until they can access the electrical room and test from that end, or to make sure someone didn't mess something up in there. If you're on copper, it's also possible that if a previous tenant in the unit had Shaw/Rogers, that a Shaw/Rogers tech may have disconnected the phone lines to the unit if the last tenant had Shaw's VoIP service installed on all phone jacks.

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

Asking the technician would have been the best idea as they would know for sure.

The strata would know about Telus, and even Shaw/Rogers, needing access for problems or hook ups. It is by far not a new thing.

In general, one big reason they need access is that they are not getting a signal in the unit itself. Could be something in the unit, the electrical room, or in between. They won't know for sure until they can access the electrical room and test from that end, or to make sure someone didn't mess something up in there. If you're on copper, it's also possible that if a previous tenant in the unit had Shaw/Rogers, that a Shaw/Rogers tech may have disconnected the phone lines to the unit if the last tenant had Shaw's VoIP service installed on all phone jacks.

[FuzzyLogic · Accepted solution]

Additionally if you are on copper you may only be provisioned for a single phone line. To get faster speeds they will need to use dual lines.

If your phone line is used for an intercom system the work could affect this so best to confirm that is working before they leave.