Fibre socket installation

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
1
Hi,

I have had a rather unpleasant experience getting an internet connection.

Can you recommend a provider who'd actually arrange for a technician to hook my apartment to the fibre network? It's an older building, but fibre is available here. SwissCom has been a mess, so far.

Thanks,

Kofa

The rest of this is just venting my frustration:

Over a week ago, I walked into a SwissCom shop; told the guy I didn't have a fibre or Ethernet socket in the apartment. He was nice enough, and I signed up.

This Monday I received my router. I also talked to my landlord, who then went to the Verwaltung, and asked them about the fibre socket. He was told it's something we have to do. He's a kind man, and told me to go ahead, he'd sign anything and even pay any installation fees.

On Wednesday, I called SwissCom support who promised they'd arrange for a technician, and call me back either later on Wednesday, or on Thursday. No-one called. On Friday, I spent an hour over the phone with different people, one of whom told me a technician would come, but until then, I should just hook up the router to the phone line.

- They didn't even know they sent a router with fibre-only connector, so I cannot hook it up to the phone

- Why did they send such a device in the first place, when I stated clearly I do not have a socket when I signed up?

Anyway, so on Friday I got another promise someone would give me a call-back to arrange for a technician to visit, either later on Friday or on Saturday. I was next to my phone all the time; it never rang. I did receive a voicemail (with the Swisscom voice menu only) on my phone, but that's it. It is now Sunday.

What a chaotic mess of a company is this?!

I'm now planning to return the box and cancel the contract (it has not taken effect yet, as I have not used the service).

2
Maybe have it installed independently before signing any subscriptions, as a matter of fact the landlord should do it but if you trust he will pay then OK. Weird that fiber was brought to the apartment building but not all apartments were connected at the time.

3
I signed up online with Salt on the 1st Sep 2020, no Optical Outlet in the actual apartment. Fibre box etc. arrived 1 week later and their technician visit to do the Fiber Socket installation is 22nd Sept 2020.

Seems a bit to straightforward so far....fingers crossed.

4
If your building already has a BEP (Building Entry Point) inside and you are on good terms with landlord then you can speed up the process / save money by laying out the cable from your apartment to BEP yourself. BEP is a white box that has "Commscope" written over it.

Cable you need is a single mode OS2 cable, you can buy them here:

https://www.brw.ch/en/rundm-em001403758

You mount the socket on the wall in your apartment and pull the cable through the channels to the BEP. Depending on your handyman skills and building topology it can be both very easy or very hard.

Cable is very, very thin with slippery outside cover so it is rather easy to pull through the channels, you should be careful not to expose cable to strong physical forces or strong bends. But it is really not a rocket science.

Once done you can call specialist who will splice the other end into BEP / do measurement. This costs more or less a flat fee of 400-500 CHF and is done by handful of authorized installers in Switzerland, so your local electrical guy will likely not do that, he will just call up that authorized company.

Cable installation was additional 1'100 in my case, I saved this money by doing the job myself in a little more then 3 hours.

Cheers

5
Update: Salt install date was delayed due to technician sickness, but it was booked in again and he arrived on time,new OTO box, neat install, took about 3 hours.

Service activation was due within 2 working days, but I plugged up the Fibre Box and it was all activated and working by 5pm the same day.

No extra costs and no complaints. All good.

6
The standard handling with fiber sockets AFAIK, in the areas covered by the local electrical companies (ewz, iwb, ewb etc.), goes as follows:

+/- All buildings are connected anyway. Connection to each apartment is not done until the first subscription for fiber at any provider in that building. AFAIK once this happens, for economical reasons all apartments are connected at once and get their fiber socket.

Happened so here in Zürich with EWZ, but may be different in other cities.

Fiddling around yourself as suggested above is the most stupid idea IMO.

7

I guess it depends to whom fibre belongs to. In our case the "owner" was Swisscom and both Swisscom as well as Landlord told us that the line between BEP and our premises is our responsibility. The rest is history.

8
Didn't want to belittle your savings of said 1100 CHF, but I doubt it is the average joe's ability to lay cables from the cellar to upper floors. The point is, if your fiber network was build in cooperation (local electric company and swisscom usually), what consitutes the VAST majority of all fiber accesses (cities and suburbs), then the connection up to every single apartment is also provided "for free" anyway usually (unless for new erected buildings since then). So no point fiddling around yourself.

The minority cases, where ONLY Swisscom offers his fiber it might be an option. But one will need a specialist anyway for the splicing of the fibers etc.. this is definitely no do-it-yourself job. As for the landlords, they surely "elegantly" will try to push the task off their responsability and "hopefully" delegate it to each individual. While basically in fact they are committed to provide/intermediate/organise each apartment's connection, and surely are not entitled to do nothing at all.

9
I have tried most providers and the best by far is inet7. I say this because:

- Fair price

- Good customer service

- Speak English (if that's what you need)

- No waiting when calling up

- Fastest fibre backbone with great uptime