Detaching and rerouting external cable - safe to do so?

[SilasB]

I've discovered that the external cable for my Virgin Media runs across my garden, barely an inch or two below the surface.  (Thought these things should be buried a few feet deep!)  As I want to do some quite intensive garden jobs, including digging borders and replacing the turf, I'd like to temporarily detach, relocate and refit the cable before I accidentally cut through it!

It was installed about 8 years ago and runs straight from an outer wall, under a border, across 10 metres of turf and under another border.  I've traced half of it and its a twin black cable, barely 2 inches below the surface.  Now surface tree roots have pushed the shallow cable to the surface of the turf in places.

I want to disconnect the cable at the junction box, dig a deeper trench for the cable (under some tree roots) thread the cable back through and then reconnect it.  Is it safe to do so?

In the photo of the junction box, the inbound cables are the two black ones coming up from below.  They are bonded together out of camera shot but split into two near the box (it looks a bit shoddy - no cable ties, and everything is loose) - one seems to have telecom cables in it, the other, I think is a single core cable (when looking at the redundant one coming in from the right).

I guess I need to unscrew the connector between white and black cables and also disconnect the telecom cables before moving and repositioning the cable.  Can this be done safely without screwing up my broadband service? 

[jpeg1]

Your contract with Virgin says that you must not interfere with those cables. If you disconnect them you will not only disrupt your own broadband but also the services of all your neighbours connected to the same cabinet.

[SilasB]

Thanks for that suggestion. I'm sure you're right but I guess that implies that the only people who can do any relocation work is from Virgin Media?

I'm happy to try getting hold of someone at Virgin Media but most of the obvious contact options shoehorns you down avenues unrelated to this.  Will have to do some digging of a different kind!

[jpeg1 · Accepted solution]

Yes unfortunately only Virgin or their contractors can do this work.  Their call system is atrocious but if you can wait for a day or two, one of their staff on here may offer to help.

[SilasB]

Fair enough.  Happy to hang on for a few days.

Am also trying the contact options with VM but looks like complaining is the only route where you can do anything other than read the suggested help guides.

Anyone from VM reading this who knows how to handle this best, please speak up!

[-tony-]

can you not back dig to get the cable above ground without disconnecting it - once its all in sight you can then decide on a route you want to use - basically thats all VM will do i think - they certainly wont bury it feet deep and cut through tree routes for the best route 

if its too short for your new route then you would need to resolve that with VM either by extending it or repulling the cable back to the cabinet - that will have a minimum charge of £99

[SilasB]

Yes, up to a point that's what I've already done.

It all started with me mowing the lawn and thinking "What's that cable visible through the grass?"  I gently dug it up and traced it back 5 metres to the wall junction box.  Where it crossed the turf/border divide it was right on the surface - just where I was about to use a spade to edge my turf! 

The problem is that its pushed to the surface by tree roots.  You can't push it under them without either sawing the roots off or detaching the cable. I'm happy enough digging a trench and filling it in (might throw a bit of conduit over first for good measure).  Just the disconnect/reconnect question...

[Z92 · Accepted solution]

Considering the length of the cable it would seem that if you buried it deeper it wouldn't reach the termination box, is that correct? 

I've done pretty much the same as you, but I didn't need to disconnect as there was additional cable in the termination box I could use. I did ask an engineer who was working a few doors down and they said disconnecting at the outside box is the same as disconnecting from the hub, it will cause interference but as long as you keep the disconnection time to a minimum (hours rather than days) it won't cause any logged faults or long term problems. If you need to disconnect for days then you need to request or borrow a termination cap. 

[SilasB]

No, there's not a huge amount of slack but the cable is far from taut.  Over a distance of bout 14 metres, there should be enough play in it to lower the majority of it into a deeper trench.  Though to be honest, its at the edges where the borders meet turf where I'm most concerned. The wall box itself is a simple affair - it would be easy to lower it a few inches without any impact.  The onward cables going up or sideways have a load of slack in them.

If the response from VM isn't practical, guess I'll follow in your footsteps.

[Z92]

Sounds like a simple job to do yourself, I doubt an engineer will want to dig up your grass - they'll most likely refer that to one of the installation cowboys by referring to an area manager. 

If all you need to do is disconnect and reconnect I wouldn't worry about it to fair, just never attempt to repair, extend or shorten any existing cables inside or out. For those jobs you definitely need an engineer. 

If you do disconnect remember the cable is durable and can withstand a lot, but the exposed copper core at the end of the cable is very delicate and easily broken. Might be worthwhile taping it up during the work.