Independent NBN installation cabling · Not NBN Co, not an ISP
NBN's installer got to the wall and stopped. NBN installation cabling: their part to the box, ours from there.
The appointment is booked and nothing joins the house to the pit, or the installer came, couldn't finish, and left it with you. Your provider points at NBN, and NBN points at the house. One quote covers the NBN installation cabling on your side, so the installer can connect. Quotes are free within 5 km of our Sutherland Shire office. Phone or photo estimates are free where the job allows.
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Trusted by 1,000+ businesses
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Susan Beale
★★★★★Many thanks to Jason for helping to get our NBN connection issues sorted. Highly recommended!
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Andrew Tax
★★★★★On time, priced exactly as quoted over the phone, friendly service
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Nick Mcnamara
★★★★★Punctual, professional, fair price and great communicator who I would highly recommend.
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Gavin Oliver
★★★★★Friendly and professional service, a real pleasure to have them out to inspect my home NBN connection.
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Antoinette Plater
★★★★★I was very happy withe the service they provided. They arrived promptly and gave very good advice. I would have no problem recommending them. Even my son, who only expects the best, was impressed.
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Tony L
★★★★★ON time, polite and efficient and quick to get job done and offer advice. Did a great job for my parents in fixing up the mess that someone else installed.
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Prue Haberecht
★★★★★Jason, thank you for doing a great job. Very professional and thorough. You found the problems and fixed them. Also you confirmed what work does not need doing. This helped us enormously. We really appreciate your service to SSNA.
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Adrien Paul
★★★★★Great service, they provided me with a lot of advice prior to the job, arrived right on time, extremely friendly and very proffesional. I highly recommend Secure A Com
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Sound familiar?
They can put the box on the building, but the conduit from the street is ours to provide
The appointment is booked and nothing joins the house to the pit. Or the installer came, couldn't finish, and left a note saying it's up to you.
NBN's installer brings the service to the box on the wall. Everything the house needs on your side of that is cabling, and it's what we do across Sydney.
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The house is brand new, the NBN cable is in the walls, and not a thing joins it to the pit in the street. NBN sent the box and said a technician would come, and apparently that is not the case, and there is nowhere to plug it in. There is an NBN box outside on the wall and a blank plate inside. The installer came, could not find the internal cables, and left. A colorbond roof put the cable path outside NBN’s guidelines, the installer’s note says, and arranging the cable has been handed to you.
Nobody who rings says “NBN installation” the way the search engine does. They say get connected, the box, the installer could not do it. A third of them have had someone out to it already. This page is for the person whose connection is stuck at the house, and it starts with the split that most of those calls turn on: NBN’s installer brings the service to the box on the wall, and everything the house needs on your side of that is cabling, which is ours. Whether you can get connected and on which technology is NBN’s question: check your address with NBN (opens in a new tab). We work across Sydney from the Sutherland Shire and take jobs well beyond it; the extra travel is charged, and the rates are in our terms and conditions.
Free advice
Before the appointment: what we tell people for free
All of this is advice we give away on the phone when people ring about a connection. Nearly all of it is better done ahead of the appointment than after it, which is the whole reason the list is here rather than at the foot of the page.
Keep this list handy
Get all twelve checks as a two-page PDF before the installer arrives.
Send me the free guide- Order through your provider, not NBN. NBN is the wholesaler; the provider books the installer. If nobody has come, ring the provider first.
- Check the technology before anyone quotes. HFC means a coax cable and a coax socket; fibre to the curb or the node means the old copper line and one socket; fibre to the premises means a fibre path to a box inside. The right cable inside the house depends on it.
- Their part and ours. NBN’s installer brings the service to the box on the wall. From the boundary to the pit is theirs, and on public land it comes with council permits and reinstatement. Inside the boundary, the conduit, the inside run, the socket and the cable to the rooms are the owner’s. Our advice on these calls, given the same way for years.
- Find out NBN’s plan first, then mark the wall with an X. Ask the installer or look at the site plan for where the outside box lands, and mark where you want the inside box before they arrive.
- Or let them install first, then fix the inside. Get connected with the box where it lands, then run one cable to where the router should live. Cheaper than arguing on the day.
- On the copper technologies, one socket, direct. Disconnect the old sockets and run the line straight to the one you use; extra sockets are bridge taps and they cause dropouts.
- New build: pre-provisioning, and conduit before the slab. A developer applies to NBN before the build; a builder leaves a conduit from the pit with a draw rope in it. The NBN conduit installation page has the spec.
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- For a granny flat, your provider comes first. NBN links each connection to a unique address, and your provider asks NBN to add the flat. The council only gives out street numbers. NBN for a granny flat sets out the order.
- Do not count on an old conduit. A narrow one with tight bends probably cannot carry fibre, and NBN is likely to ask for a new one.
- You can dig the trench yourself, down to the depth the guide gives, and leave the conduit to us.
- The fallback. Where a new lead-in means boring or cutting concrete, a 5G home internet plan, or waiting for the fibre upgrade rather than paying for conduit, has been our advice on some calls. NBN’s upgrade terms are theirs to state.
- Send photos and a distance. The pit, the wall, the inside, and a number of metres. Most of this is quoted from that.
Recognise it?
Where your connection is up to right now
The house is wired inside and nothing reaches the street
The house is finished and wired inside, and nothing joins the wall to the pit. It's the commonest reason a new house can't connect on the day.
Usually points to: a roped conduit from your boundary to where the outside box goes.
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The house is finished and cabled for the NBN inside, and between the wall and the pit in the street there is nothing at all. Or the installer has said the box at the street and the box on the house are theirs to fit, and the conduit that joins them is for you to supply.
It is the commonest reason a brand new house cannot be connected on the day. The builder either never laid a conduit, laid it to the wrong side, or ran it to a hub that turns out to be on council land.
What you end up with. A conduit laid from your boundary to the spot the outside box will sit, a draw rope already through it, so the installer's cable goes straight in when they arrive.
What the conduit has to be ›Getting the house ready before the appointment ›
The installer came and could not finish
The installer came and couldn't finish: no internal cable found, a path outside their guidelines, a note saying it's yours to arrange. It's nearly always a path, not a fault.
Usually points to: the path finished the way the house allows, then the return visit.
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They could not find the internal cables. The wires at the switchboard had flood damage and some were plastered over. The cable pathway is outside guidelines because of the colorbond roof, and you have been told to arrange the cable yourself.
Whatever stopped them, it is nearly always on your side of the wall, and it is nearly always a path rather than a fault. Find out exactly what they could not do, because that one sentence is the job.
What you end up with. The path finished the way the house allows: through the roof or the cavity where there is one, in neat conduit where there is not. Then your provider books the return visit.
Why installers stop ›The fibre path and where the box goes ›
A box outside, a blank plate inside, nowhere to plug in
A box outside, a blank plate inside, and nowhere to plug anything in. Usually the cable was never brought through the wall, or was cut when the floor went down.
Usually points to: a working socket where the plate is, fed from the outside box.
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They sent the box and said a technician would come, and apparently that is not the case, and you cannot see anywhere to plug it in. Or there is a box on the outside wall and inside there is just a blank wall plate.
A blank plate almost always means the cable was never brought through the wall, or it was and somebody cut it when the floorboards went down. Photographs of both sides of that wall usually settle it without anybody driving out.
What you end up with. A socket where the plate is, fed by a short run from the outside box, and a box you can actually plug in.
Connected, and the box landed in the wrong place
It's connected, and the box went where the cable came in: the garage, the laundry, the far end of the house. Not urgent, and worth doing properly.
Usually points to: one cable to the middle of the house, or the box itself moved.
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It went in where the cable came in: the garage, the laundry, one end of a long house. The router went with it, and the room you actually work in gets whatever is left of the signal after two walls and a floor.
This one is not urgent and it is not a fault, so it is worth doing properly rather than quickly. Moving the box is rarely the cheapest answer, and it is not usually the right one either.
What you end up with. A cable from the box to the middle of the house with the router on the end of it, or, where that will not do, the box itself moved.
The usual suspects
Why the installer stopped
- No conduit, or conduit to the wrong place.
The builder never laid one, or ran it to council land or the wrong side of the house.
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The builder never put one in, or ran it to a hub on council land, or to the wrong side of the house.
- The inside cable is the wrong kind.
Ethernet where the coax network needed coax, or the other way round.
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Ethernet where the coax network needed coax, or the reverse.
- No socket, or a dead one.
A blank plate, a socket corroded by sea air, or a cable cut under new floorboards.
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A blank plate inside, a corroded socket near the beach, a cable cut when the floorboards went down.
- The box landed where the cable came in
On a slab, on the far side of the house from where the router needs to be.
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, on a slab, on the wrong side of the house from the router.
- Old conduit that will not take fibre
Too narrow or too bent for fibre, or a fibre lead painted over and kicked that has to be replaced.
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, or a fibre lead that has to be replaced, not spliced, after it was painted over and kicked.
- A unit with NBN in the building and nothing to the door.
The service reaches the basement, and nobody has run it to your door.
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- Bridge taps on the copper technologies
Old sockets still chained on a copper line, splitting the signal.
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: the old sockets still chained on the line.
- An old copper lead-in under the footpath
Replacing it means cutting concrete, so an aerial cable is often the practical fix.
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, where an aerial cable is the practical fix.
- The pit itself
In the driveway, or carrying NBN's branch cable, which only NBN may move.
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: in the driveway, or carrying NBN’s branch cable, which nobody but NBN may move.
New build?
Building? What the builder has to leave
Most new houses that can't connect on the day are missing one thing: a pipe from the pit to the wall. It's cheap while the ground is open. A conduit to nbn's guide, a draw rope in it, and a path inside to where the router will live.
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One property in five on this page is a new build, and the same thing goes wrong on nearly all of them: the house is finished, the appointment is booked, and there is no path from the pit to the wall. What the builder has to leave is short and it is cheap while the ground is still open: a conduit from the pit to the house, laid to nbn’s own lead-in guide, with a draw rope in it, ending where the outside box will go.
After that, a path inside from that point to where the inside box and the router will live, and on a multi-dwelling build, the pre-provisioning application to NBN before the build rather than after it. The conduit itself, its size, its depth and its bends, is the NBN conduit installation page. Where the slab is already down and the conduit is not in it, the trench is the job, and it is quoted like any other.
Second dwelling?
A granny flat, or a unit with nothing at the door
A granny flat can't be ordered until your provider has asked NBN to add it, however much cable is laid. Until then it shares the house's service over one cable. In a unit, the job is the run from the frame in the basement to your door.
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One property in six that we hear from about a new connection is a granny flat, and the part that catches people is not the cabling. NBN links each connection to a unique address, so a flat on the house’s address cannot simply be ordered, no matter how much cable has been laid. It goes in this order: a call to your provider, not the council, NBN’s additional connections process, an order from that provider, and then the installer’s visit. Until that happens the flat shares the house’s service over one cable, which on fibre runs off a spare port on the house’s box. NBN for a granny flat goes through it step by step, addressing included.
A unit is the other version of the same problem: there is NBN to the building and nothing has been done in the apartment. The run from the frame in the basement to your door is the job, surface-ducted where a slab allows nothing else, and the frame itself is MDF jumpering. A building on a fibre to the building service starts at fibre to the building.
How it works
What we do, by where the connection is up to
Which of these you need is decided by one question: where the connection is up to today. Every version of it ends with NBN connected and the router where the house needs it. NBN’s part stays NBN’s; we never install the NBN, and we never say what it costs or when they will come.
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Before the appointment: get the house ready.
Conduit from the boundary to the entry point with a draw rope; the inside run from the outside box position to where the inside box and router will live; the socket, one and direct, on the copper technologies; the right coax on HFC. NBN's installer then connects. The conduit is the NBN conduit installation page; the fibre path and box position are FTTP upgrade cabling.
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The installer came and stopped: finish the path.
The conduit they could not find or use, the inside run they would not do, the socket that was never there, the cable from the frame to the unit. Then your provider books the return visit. Sockets are the NBN wall socket page; the lead-in cable itself is lead-in cable installation; units are fibre to the building and MDF jumpering.
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Connected, box in the wrong place: cable the house.
A switch beside the box and one cable to where the router should be, which is data cabling; or the box moved, which is NBN box relocation. What the box is and where it belongs is in our guide to the NBN connection box.
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New build and granny flat.
On a new build or granny flat, the whole path from the pit, laid before the slab, with the address sorted first.
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The whole path from the pit, conduit before the slab, the inside run, the sockets, and the address sorted first. The two sections above this one carry what the builder has to leave and how a second dwelling gets its own service.
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Reviews
What people say after the job.
“provided meaningful quote - resulting in not moving forward, which is fair - given the constraints of the job. I appreciated the honest and thoughtful evaluation of what the job might be.”
A real job from the field
Sutherland, NSW · FTTC · Filmed on site, 1 min
NBN had been out a couple of times, and the reason it wouldn't connect was in the ground.
A new development in Sutherland, on fibre to the curb. The pipe between the house and the street was broken, with the old lead-in hanging out of it. We joined it with a bend and an adapter, pulled a new lead-in through to the pit, fitted a new box outside, and left it ready for NBN to connect.
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Sutherland, a new development connecting to fibre to the curb. NBN’s technicians had been out a couple of times and the connection had not gone ahead. The reason was in the ground: a section of the pipe between the house and the street was broken, with the old lead-in cable hanging out of it, while a 20 mm conduit already ran from the house down to the break.
We joined the broken section with a bend and an adapter, so the conduit ran continuously from the house to the street pit, and pulled a brand new lead-in cable through it all the way to the pit. A new utility box went on the outside wall, and the customer’s internal Cat6 was terminated to the new lead-in.
The house was left ready for NBN to connect the fibre to the curb service.
Price
What does NBN installation cabling cost?
Quoted not fixed
What's included
- Free quote within 5 km
- Free estimate from photos
- Written quote, valid 14 days
- 12-month cabling warranty
- Maker's warranty on parts
Free Spaces account with every job, if you want one. What's Spaces?
You pay for the part on your side of the boundary and nothing else. NBN's part is NBN's, and we never price it. What moves the price is the path: the conduit run, the inside run and the sockets.
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This work is quoted. Quotes are free for properties within 5 km of our Sutherland Shire office. Beyond 5 km a site inspection is charged at $250 inc. GST, and the written quote follows the inspection; the inspection fee may be credited against the job at our discretion.
We are a specialised service, so we may not be local to you. If you are outside Sydney or more than 40 km from our office, we can still come to you, but the extra travel means an extra travel charge. All travel charges are set out in our terms and conditions.
Phone or photo estimates are free at any distance where the job allows, so most of this work is priced from photos and a rough distance before anyone drives anywhere.
What you get in writing
| Quote | Price | What it contains |
|---|---|---|
| Photo or phone estimate | Free | A ballpark from your photos, a rough distance in metres and your answers, before anyone drives anywhere. Free at any distance where the job allows. |
| Written quote | Free | Free for properties within 5 km of our Sutherland Shire office, after a look at the job. Valid 14 days. |
| Site inspection, further out | $250 inc. GST | Beyond that distance a site inspection is charged, and the written quote follows it. The inspection fee may be credited against the job at our discretion. |
Trusted on site by
Commercial fault and cabling work, done by the same technician who comes to your house.
Your options
The path from the street to your router, piece by piece: whose each one is
| NBN's installer | Has to be there already | Ours to build | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The pit and the street | Theirs. The cable in the street and the pit in the footpath are the network, and nobody else may open or move them. | Nothing from you. The pit is where their part starts. | Nothing. We work on your side of the boundary and no further. |
| The pit to your boundary | Theirs, including the permits and making good the footpath afterwards where the work is on public land. | Nothing from you, although a pit in a driveway or under a new slab changes what is possible for everybody. | Nothing. Where the route is impossible, we say so early rather than at the appointment. |
| Your boundary to the wall | They pull their cable through a path that is already there. They do not build the path. | A conduit with a draw rope in it, from the boundary to where the outside box will go. On a new build the builder leaves it. | The trench and the conduit, or the aerial route, with the draw rope in ready for their cable. |
| The outside box | Theirs. They fit it and they decide where it will go, from the route their cable can take. | A clear, dry stretch of wall they can reach, and somewhere it will not be built over later. | Nothing on the box itself. We can mark where you want it and cable the house to suit it. |
| The wall to the inside box | On some technologies they will make a short run through the wall; on others they will not, and a path outside their guidelines stops the job. | A route from the outside box position to where the inside box and router should live. | The run itself: through the roof or the cavity where the house has one, in neat conduit where it has not. |
| The socket, or the inside box | They fit and connect the inside box, or plug into the socket that is already there. | On the copper technologies, one socket on the direct run with the old ones disconnected. On coax, the right cable to it. | The socket, the direct run, and the old sockets taken off, so the connection is not fighting the wiring on day one. |
| From there to the rooms | Out of scope entirely. Their job finishes at the connection. | Nothing. This is the part nobody arranges until the router turns out to be in the garage. | The cable to the office, the TV or the flat, and a switch beside the box where several rooms need one. |
SourcesHide sources
Sources: nbn co's own published description of what its installation includes and where the network boundary sits, and our own installation jobs across Sydney (the rows are the calls we take). What any one installer does on the day varies, so the first column says what their part is, not what they will decide. Our own fees and reports are in our terms and conditions.
Whoever your provider is, the answer is the same.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Something not covered? Call 02 9188 1577 and ask, or send it through the contact form and you get the answer in writing.
What is your call-out fee for NBN installation work?
For a quote, usually nothing. Photos of the pit, the outside wall where the cable comes in, the inside where the box or the blank plate is, and a distance in metres are enough to quote most of it, provided the property is inside the distance the terms allow for a free quote. Further out, a visit to look is charged as the service call, and under the terms it may be credited to the job.
Do you need to come out before you can quote?
Not for most jobs. The photos above and a number of metres quote a conduit run, an inside run or a socket. A blocked conduit nobody can find, or a house on a slab with no path anywhere, can need someone on site before a price is given; what that visit costs, and when it comes off the job, is in the terms.
Can I send photos or a floor plan?
Yes, please. The pit, the outside wall, the inside, the path between, and a site plan or floor plan with the router marked if you have one. We ask for them when we reply to your enquiry, and for a new build the builder's plan showing where the conduit was meant to go is the most useful thing of all.
Do you install the NBN, or does NBN?
The installer NBN sends delivers the service as far as the box on your wall. That covers the lead-in cable from the pit, both boxes and the connection itself. Our part is what the house needs past that point: the conduit on your property, the run inside, the socket, the cable to the rooms. We do not touch their network, and they do not run cable through your house.
NBN sent me the box and said a technician would come. Nobody has. What now?
Ring your provider, not NBN. NBN is the wholesaler; the provider books the installer, and on some technologies the box is posted out for you to plug in yourself with no visit at all. If the house has nowhere to plug it in, no socket, a blank plate, a cable that stops in the garage, that is the part we do first.
The installer came and couldn't connect me. What do I do?
Find out what stopped them: no conduit from the pit, an entry they could not find, no cable or the wrong cable inside, a path outside their guidelines. Each of those is a cabling job on your side, and the page above says which. When it is done, your provider books the return visit and the installer connects.
What should be ready at the house before the NBN appointment?
On a new build, a conduit from the boundary to the house with a draw rope in it. On the copper technologies, one socket, direct, with the old sockets disconnected. On fibre, a path from where the outside box will land to where you want the inside box, and a mark on the wall. On coax, the right cable inside. Photos tell us which you are missing.
We're building. What does the builder need to leave for NBN?
A conduit from the pit to the house, laid to nbn's lead-in guide, with a draw rope, ending where the outside box will go; a path inside from there to where the inside box and router will live; and for a multi-dwelling build, the pre-provisioning application to NBN before the build. Without the conduit, the installer arrives to a house with no path.
There's an NBN box outside and a blank plate inside. Is that a job?
Yes, a small one. The outside box is NBN's; the run from it to an inside socket or the inside box is ours, and a blank plate usually means the cable was never brought through or was cut in a renovation. Photos of both sides of the wall tell us whether it is a socket, a short run, or a new cable.
Which NBN technology am I getting, and does it change the cabling?
Check your address with NBN; the checker says which. Fibre to the premises means a fibre path to a box inside. Fibre to the curb or the node means the old copper line and one socket. HFC means a coax cable and a coax socket. The right cable inside the house depends on it, and a builder who ran the wrong kind is one of the commonest things we find.
Can you connect my granny flat, or my apartment?
The granny flat starts with your provider, who asks NBN to add it before a service can be ordered, and until then it shares the house's service over a cable; the granny flat guide has the sequence. An apartment with NBN to the building and nothing at the door is the run from the frame in the basement to your unit, on the fibre to the building page.
Do I need a registered cabler for the cabling inside the house?
Yes. The run from the NBN box to a socket joins the NBN, which makes it customer cabling, and customer cabling is work for a registered cabler. Our technician is an Open Registered Cabler. The number is at the foot of this page, and the about page carries the licence and method statement.
Dig deeper
Guides for this job
5 guides
- 20Aug
Guide
NBN Box Lights Explained: Flashing Blue, Red or Clicking
What the lights on your NBN box mean on fibre, HFC and fibre to the curb: why it clicks, flashes blue or shows red, and what to do before you ring anyone.
Read the guide › - 23Aug
Guide
Which NBN Connection Is Best, and Which Do You Have?
Which NBN connection is best? FTTP, HFC, FTTC, FTTB and FTTN compared: how to tell which one your home has, what it means, and whether you can upgrade.
Read the guide › - 27Aug
Guide
Why Modem Lights Are On But No Internet [SOLVED]
Modem lights on but no internet? What the WAN, Internet, WiFi and Ethernet lights mean, what flashing or red tells you, and what to try before you ring.
Read the guide › - 15Sept
Guide
Granny flat NBN: your own service, or share the house's?
Can a granny flat have its own NBN? How your provider gets the flat onto nbn, sharing the house's service over a cable, and what to lay before the slab.
Read the guide › - 15June
Guide
Best Modem for NBN and Best NBN Router: 12 Picks by NBN Type
The best modem for NBN and the best NBN router, with a pick for every NBN type: a DSL modem router for a phone socket, a WAN router for an NBN box.
Read the guide ›
NBN Installation
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