Where will NBN put your box? Plan the spot before the installer arrives.

Can you choose where the NBN box goes?

You can ask, and you should. NBN’s own fact sheet (opens in a new tab) says the installer will assess your home and take your reasonable preference into consideration. What actually happens on the day depends on who turns up, so the people who get the box where they want it are the ones who’ve made it easy: the spot marked, a power point beside it, a path ready, and the request in writing before the day.

That’s what the planner and the sheet are for.

What NBN’s rules say about the spot

These are NBN’s, from its fact sheets for the fibre connection box (opens in a new tab) and for cable pathways (opens in a new tab):

• By default, on the inside of the wall the outside box is on. That’s where the installer starts. Anywhere else is your request.
• On the ground floor in a home with more than one storey.
• Cool, dry and ventilated, at least 300 mm off the floor, and not in a bathroom, laundry or kitchen wet area, or under a window that opens.
• Within 1.2 metres of a power point, or within reach of a safe extension lead you supply. NBN recommends a double power point: the router needs one too.
• Within 12 metres of the outside box. Further than that needs a cable pathway you’ve put in.
• Not a garage or a bedroom, unless you ask for it, there’s existing network cabling from there to a better spot, or it’s the only safe or practical place in the house.
• If you build the path inside, it’s continuous rigid white P20 conduit with glued joints and no more than three 90-degree bends, with its ends left open where the installer can reach them. A draw string in it is our advice, not NBN’s rule, and it makes the installer’s job quicker. What NBN asks for if you build the path yourself.
• Underground is different. For a new pipe under the ground, NBN says it may not be able to use it because of how the network runs in your street, so talk to NBN before anyone digs.

And one thing to know before the day: NBN’s technicians can’t get into low roof spaces or low underfloor spaces. If yours is tight, the path needs to be ready before they come.

Where we’d put it, if it were our house

NBN’s rules say where the box is allowed. They don’t say where it’s best. What we tell people:

• Put it where your wifi should start. That’s near the middle of the house, where the TV or the desk is, not at one end.
• Out in the open. A router in a cupboard or behind the TV cabinet loses a lot of its reach.
• Next to a double power point. One for the box, one for the router.
• On a wall you can get to from underneath or above. That’s what makes the path cheap.

Three spots that cause trouble later

1. The garage. The easiest spot for the installer, and the worst for wifi. What to do if it’s already there.
2. A kitchen cupboard. It looks tidy on the day. Then the router’s signal has to get out of a box inside a box.
3. The front bedroom. It’s often closest to the street. It’s also the room the rest of the house can’t reach.

Moving the box once it’s in is a job in its own right. See what it costs to sort it before the install instead.

Get the path ready before the day

The cheapest way to get the box where you want it is a pipe with a draw string from where the outside box will go to your spot, ready before the installer arrives. On the day, they pull the fibre through and fit the box where you chose. That’s pre-wiring for the NBN box.

Watch: NBN FTTP Upgrade: Don’t Let NBN Dictate Your NTD Box Location! (Pre-Wire Secrets)

On the day

1. Be home, or have someone over 18 there. NBN won’t install without them.
2. Hand the installer your sheet before anything is drilled, and show them the X on the wall.
3. If they can’t put it there, let them put it where they can. A working box in the wrong spot is a cabling job. No connection at all is another appointment and more waiting.
4. Check the lights before they leave. What the lights on the box should look like.
5. Reconnect your phone. On fibre, a home phone plugs into the router, not the wall.

Not getting fibre to the premises?

• Fibre to the curb: There’s no box to place. The fibre to the curb connection device plugs into a phone socket, so the question is which socket. Pick the one where your router should live, and make sure it’s the socket nearest where the line comes into the house, or one wired straight from it. How fibre to the curb works.
• HFC: The HFC box goes beside the wall outlet where the cable comes in. If that’s the wrong room, the outlet itself can be moved by a cabler before or after the install. How HFC works, and moving the box.