Cut FIOS cable. Will I be charged?

[squirrel dog]

are you kidding?Call in a trouble report,a phone rat will come out and sling out a new temp wire,three weeks later another phone rat will bury it 2" deep and cut it over . It's all good.

 

[Ichinisan]

FTFY.

6 inches still isn't deep enough to bury a cable. Minimum of 1 foot, preferrably 2-3.

Ludicrous. You're insane.

 

[AlienCraft]

Lov voltage cables may not be any less than 18", iirc.
120/240v direct burial cable may not be less than 24''.

My NEC book is in storage.

 

[squirrel dog]

I ran crews of buried wire technicians for att.We went 6" IF we could.A lot of times we went much less.All depended on ground conditions,and the consumer.Some folks did not want a 4000lb vibratory ditchwitch plow on their manacured lawn,so we had to hand dig it,and that's when you get depths less than 6". In the southeast USA.It's different elsewhere,or so they say.On inspects in other states I would take out a 12" ruler and measure depth.Usually it was 6" or better.The plow we used(a ditchwitch 410) could bury a 5pair buried service wire 2' deep if needed,and had a trencher(2~4'deep)on the front of the machine for larger cables.

 

[MotionMan]

Call DH tell them you will be aerating your lawn, they will tell you you are good to go.



THEN call verizon.

This is why I read threads before posting. My response would have been identical.

MotionMan

 

[Greenman]

Debating whether I was a bonehead or verizon was lazy in burying their cable. I was prepping my lawn for new grass seed and cut the FIOS cable buried two inches down with an aerator. Will verizon charge me to fix it? If it costs me alot I think I will just cancel the service.

It was a piss poor instillation, but you might still be on the hook for it. The reason is that a lot of places have no low voltage codes.

 

[spidey07]

It was a piss poor instillation, but you might still be on the hook for it. The reason is that a lot of places have no low voltage codes.

Running an aerator would be considered normal use and maintenance. It would be the same if the line was cut with a lawn mower.

 

[squirrel dog]

correctamondo.

 

[Mark R]

Lov voltage cables may not be any less than 18", iirc.
120/240v direct burial cable may not be less than 24''.

Maybe it's different for fiber cable. Round here, they're burying new fiber cables 2-3" deep.

They've got some cheap method of doing it. They get a big diamond saw to cut a slot in the road, then drop the fiber in, then fill in the slot with some bitumen. Job done.

Slot saw

Fiber installation

 

[JasonK]

Lov voltage cables may not be any less than 18", iirc.
120/240v direct burial cable may not be less than 24''.

My NEC book is in storage.

There is no voltage in a FiOS drop cable running from a terminal to the ONT. Cable drop depth varies from city to city

 

[Gibson486]

Ummm...guys....fiber optic is not subject to the same code as copper wire. It does not carry any current at all and the cable is non conductive.

 

[FDF12389]

This is why I read threads before posting. My response would have been identical.

MotionMan

:thumbsup:

 

[Oyeve]

Ummm...guys....fiber optic is not subject to the same code as copper wire. It does not carry any current at all and the cable is non conductive.

True, it just leaks radiation.

 

[spidey07]

Ummm...guys....fiber optic is not subject to the same code as copper wire. It does not carry any current at all and the cable is non conductive.

The jacket has a metal sheath to protect from animals. The same low voltage cable regs and grounding apply. Also called direct burial or armored fiber.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

The jacket has a metal sheath to protect from animals. The same low voltage cable regs and grounding apply. Also called direct burial or armored fiber.

in my experience, armored cable prevents no damage and is a complete nightmare to work with. also, there's aluminum threads in any fiber cable there to make it detectable with a cable locator.

 

[Mark R]

in my experience, armored cable prevents no damage and is a complete nightmare to work with. also, there's aluminum threads in any fiber cable there to make it detectable with a cable locator.

Steel wire armor is an absolute bitch, makes the cable very heavy, difficult to terminate and expensive. The only real advantage is that it is pretty much impervious to rats. It still gets damaged by stones (especially in shallow trenches, where it lies above the frost line) and is easily damaged with digging equipment - even shovels and picks.

Proper heavy duty cable ducts have been much more reliable in my (very) limited experience.

Conductive threads aren't universal in fiber cables - there is a market for "all dielectric" fiber cables, which contain no metal or electrically conductive material at all. These are preferred in areas prone to electrical storms; they may also have a role in military use as they are very difficult to trace and are resistant to EMP.

Most outdoor fiber cables are at least partially conductive - either because they use a steel fiber tube, steel reinforcement wires for better pulling capability, or because they have steel anti-rodent armor. All of these features can be achieved with non-metallic materials if needed, by replacing the tubes with plastic, the reinforcement with aramid yarn (kevlar) or the metal armor with glass-reinforced plastic.

While a light duty fiber optic microduct might not be terribly robust, it's pretty easy to repair (even if the fiber replacement is expensive).

 

[Puppies04]

IIRC it generally needs to be at least 6" down

Thats what she said

 

[D1gger]

I do this for a living and the code for communications cable under landscaped ground is .76m (~30 inches.) we generally stick to having at least 1m of cover (~40 inches).

 

[AlienCraft]

It was a piss poor instillation, but you might still be on the hook for it. The reason is that a lot of places don't enforce or inspect any low voltage codes.

ftfy :sneaky:
I really do not have any recent experience with FIOS @ the industrial level and I can easily envision a scenario where they (a service provider or contractor) would just cover it with twigs and leaves and call it "OK!" 😵

 

[AlienCraft]

I do this for a living and the code for communications cable under landscaped ground is .76m (~30 inches.) we generally stick to having at least 1m of cover (~40 inches).

Yeah, but you're in Canadia, and as we all know, those people are just too damn reasonable. :sneaky:

 

[pcgeek11]

Lov voltage cables may not be any less than 18", iirc.
120/240v direct burial cable may not be less than 24''.

My NEC book is in storage.

None of this applies. It is a fiber optic cable.