When we recently took up residence in our new (or rather C17th) house in the beautiful town of Beaulieu-lès-Loches the first thing we did was organise a visit by Orange to connect us to the recently installed fibre network.
We had a nasty surprise when the technician told us he could find no sign of the “régard” (manhole) through which the telecom wire passed and which was necessary for him to make the connection. He stuck an “aiguille” in the duct which passed about ten metres in before getting stuck, so we know how far the blockage is, but it may just be a blockage half way to the manhole.
The Orange man then left us high and dry, telling us to let Orange know when we’d found it!
It seems that there are companies that will promise to find the path of underground telecoms cables by means if a sound generator and tracker, but there are none who operate in our area.
Has anyone else had a similar experience who can give us any advice?
There was no sign of the regard on either our land or the street outside, but the most likely location is just inside our wall. If so, it is buried under our paved patio…
I had a fairly similar situation where Orange wasn’t able to locate the duct going to my house up my drive, which is approx 150m long. Ultimately I ended up installing another duct, as took the view that I could be digging and searching for some time, and may not even find the existing duct. I wasn’t looking for a manhole, but if you are, could you use a metal detector to pick up the manhole cover???
Yes I wonder if we may have to do some variation of that. However to so so we would need to know where the telecom cable enters our property, as the alternative would be to dig a trench across the street from our house to the FT plaque 30 metres away…!
Digging in the street (public road??) could be quite expensive and I could imagine it being quite time consuming to get any required permissions/approvals if you’re doing this. I think I would first see if you could locate the manhole as a first step, then if that fails then look at the option in the street, but not you initiating, but Orange based on below.
Is the FT plaque the manhole that Orange were trying to push their rodding line through? If so, and that blocked about 10m in, and it’s about 30m from your property, the blocked duct is their issue to solve isn’t it?
If you can agree with Orange ‘their’ duct is blocked outside your property, can’t you get them to install a new duct to your property and then you take a new line from there. This then obviously means you installing a new duct inside your boundary to your house if you can’t locate yours.
We will be getting fibre this year. A few years ago, the road was resurfaced, and they layed tarmac over several manholes, which then suddenly dissapeared. The company who were tasked with installing the infrastructure had to find the manholes and manually ‘dig them out’. This was on a public road through the village.
Our fibre connection comes onto our property above ground. It’s connected to the underground wire on the road up the hill behind us, then comes down our chemin rural looped from telegraph pole to telegraph pole. Does your connection have to go underground?
Having re-read this… here’s my experience of F Telecom doing major works some 10 years ago in our commune.
France Telecom put a few regards (rather than manholes) down the streets and outside my house is a large rectangular regard (where major cables joined, if I recall correctly).
This regard is on public land, with the cables going the short distance underground via small pipework, then up the walls of the houses… FT did not put any regards on private land.
How far is your house from the street and did you have telephone connection in the past??
I am certainly not considering applying to have the road dug up at our own expense! As the prospect of solving this quickly recedes into the distance we are hoping we can sign up for ADSL with Orange then switch once/if it is resolved.
There is it seems a perfectly good telephone connection in our house, which is directly next to the road on the corner of the main village square. It is a stunningly beautiful location but there is an annoying amount of traffic as it is part of one of only two roads passing along the valley.
For me… manhole is something a man could climb into…
by using the French word “regard” I am reminded that it might be quite a small opening in the ground.
Thanks, AM.
While online translators are useful for common words and expressions I really don’t trust them for more obscure words and phrases. For example, Collins insists that the French word for ‘manhole’ is ‘trou d’homme’ which is literal but probably not idiomatically correct!