Forum Discussion
what to expect - Telus switching me from VDSL to fibre
So a Telus rep phoned me and said they were going to discontinue their old-style internet and Optik TV service (which operates on VDSL from copper phone wires) and they want to swap me over to fibre ...
Water tank now replaced, did it myself with help from a friend. Another crisis ended and crawl space now dry, so onward with the fibre.
In preparation for the fibre install I moved my modem/router (Actiontec V1000H) to the central closet where I also want to put the ONT. BTW temporarily I am using just a 35' long telephone cable to extend the phone line from the family room to the router in the central closet, surprisingly this dollar-store non-twisted-pair cable does not slow down the internet speeds, it's same 18Mbit download speed as before..
This new router location in the closet makes wi-fi about 15% slower in main hangout family room (extra walls and appliances to go through), but faster in the living room, and same speed on 2nd floor. The closet space is partly under stairs so only 3.5' high in that spot, but is otherwise close to power and ethernet cables, and my home theatre stuff is on the other side of the wall. Wi-fi would probably be better in another part of the closet that's 7' high but cables would need to be longer, so I will use the lower height location and see if that works out OK.
The Telus fibre installation (updating from Telus Optik via VDSL on phone wires) is set for next week. I called Telus to ask about them extending the fibre cable from the garage wall access panel about 35' into a central closet in my house, and they said that could be possible, I told them I will pull the cable through the crawl space if they don't want to do that part of the job, it will only take me 5 minutes crawling around.
I looked at the Telus installation in a friends house and it looks like the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) is an Alcatel Lucent white box, placed in the garage. Is the Alcatel/Lucent the standard Telus ONT? I notice the ONT has 4 LAN ports and one of these goes to a T3200M router in a remote den room, are the other 3 LAN ports available for customer network devices?
At my friends house it looks like Telus is running ethernet from the T3200M to the house coax cable, for simplicity, although they could have easily run network cables in the crawl space to the TV wall area. In the living room where the TV is located, they have an Actiontec ECB6200 MoCA Network Adapter which looks like it is converting the coax cable signal to a standard network cable signal that goes to the PVR.
Is the Telus T3200M their standard router now? I have the Actiontec V1000H which has worked OK but is now about 10 years old so I'm guessing Telus will update me to the T3200M or similar.
And maybe they will update my Cisco CIS430 PVR, it still works well for most things, but every few weeks it has HDMI issues that cause it to blank out the image, very annoying, fixed by power on/off or sometimes reboot needed. Maybe if they give me a new PVR I can still keep the Cisco PVR and watch my old recorded programs, such as Cannon and Highway Patrol series. Don't laugh, but several future big stars are in Highway Patrol for their first acting jobs, such as Clint Eastwood.
frankw Telus will not enter attics crawl spaces with covid the install could be by remote you do all the work by cell. The ont will probably stay in garage--you will get a 3200 outer. Your phone lines are probably terminated in garage are you putting hone on fiber. ( be aware phones won't work during power outage you can ask for an batter back up) You should run 2 or 3 cate 5 or 6 cables from garage to your closet. Then branch out from there
polecat, I'm not using Telus wired phone, switched to cellphone-only over 10 years ago. Now using Public Mobile, the low-end Telus cell service provider, they're good and the price is right, however all account setup and customer service stuff is done via their message forums.
Am crossing my fingers hoping I can get the fibre into the house. Telus phone rep sounded optimistic, I guess it depends on who the installer is. They have set up a 3+ hour time space for the installation but I think it will be only 30 to 60 minutes, since the fibre is already in the garage, I think they just need to do something at a network building about 3 Km away to activate it.
I have had first COVID shot 2 months ago and due for 2nd shot in 10 days, I guess I could delay the fibre until end of month for ultra safety, but local situation seems good.
Telus will go for the path of least resistance. When I bought my house they had previously run fibre under my vinyl siding and had the ONT and modem come out in the living room under the TV. I had to pay ~$400 to get them to put it in the garage. Their hourly rate is HIGH.
I would call ahead and let them know your PVR isn't working and needs to be replaced. Typically, in my experience, installers only carry what they need for their scheduled jobs and a couple of other pieces. They'd mail you a new PVR if the tech doesn't have one (as it doesn't require a tech to install). You could also ask for wireless receivers for your other two TVs. They share the PVR recordings with the main box and connect to the PVR wirelessly so you should be able to use it well. Just adds one more box to your collection.
If you can do work to have things run ahead of time, you're more likely to get Telus to do what you want. The least amount of work they have to do the better for them.
Fibre installation now done, it went pretty smooth and took about 1.5 hours, only 1 Telus technician used. I get about 29 Mbit download, 58 Mbit upload, 5 msec ping, 300 GB download limit, not high end but OK for me, and fast enough that I will upgrade Netflix to 4K ability. Minor issues afterward with my Telus account settings and PVR, now fixed.
In advance about 2 or 3 weeks ago I called tech support to ask them to make a note that I wanted to run the fibre line run through my house crawl space with ONT (Optical terminal box) installed in a central closet and they said that would probably be OK, and they noted my preference in their info for the installation people. I delayed the installation so I could get the 2nd COVID shot.
I pre-installed a small shelf and plywood wall panel in the closet to make it easy to place the ONT and router. AC power outlet already there. In advance I changed my existing copper Telus VDSL setup by moving the old Actiontech router to the closet. I ran a long telephone extension cord into the closet from the family room. Actually I used a 20' cord and a 10' cord connected together. I didn't have an in-line cable connector, so just used an old PC modem card to connect the 2 cords, these old modems usually have 2 phone jacks wired in parallel so they are a no-cost way to connect 2 phone cords without splicing/soldering wires, etc, a crude but effective short term solution.
Telus just swapped my old router for a new router that has the ONT built-in, so this does everything with only one box. They call this the "Telus Wi-Fi Hub", it's in a white cylinder shape case about 7" high. It has 4 LAN ethernet ports. It sits on the shelf, the plywood wall panel was not required.
The Telus person was OK with my putting the optical cable in the crawl space so he gave me a spool about 50' long prewired with connectors on both ends. I taped the ends to protect from dust since my crawl space has a lot of construction debris (dirt, concrete particles, sawdust, etc). It took about 15 minutes to install the cable which passed through a hole I drilled in the garage area. This cable then was stapled to the garage wall and eventually connected to the Telus wall panel in the garage. This panel has the optical cable from the street area. The street cable is thicker and stronger than the house optical cable. My house optical cable has about 20' extra length available so I could in the future easily move the Telus electronics to another room.
Installation was done on worst day of current heat wave, it was 43C. Fortunately only about 30C in the crawl space.
My existing PVR was not replaced but I was given a new remote, I might call them and ask for a replacement PVR since I have HDMI issues. Apparently if they mail you a new device it's a new one, while the on-call service technicians usually have refurbs, my technical advised it was better to get the devices that are mailed out to customer.
frankw The ont will be near point of entry need 120 there. It would surprise me if they ran fiber all he way into the inside of house. Have power at your closet. At least 2 120 outlets. If installing cate yourself You can get crimping tool for rj45 and cate ends cheap and small quanties at (prime cables ca).------ (crimp tool and tester $16 ) hunt their site for the rj 45 ends and other cables. Get cate at home depot or prime Crimp tool at home $70 or more. We use prime for all our ink and cable ---- battery ----needs Polecat
