*
I have a new house Conn. I’m the GC and have buried the 2 and 4 inch schedule 40 PVC for Electric, Telephone, and cable. It was a 600 hundred foot run. I called the local cable company about hooking me up, they told me they needed to do a survey and would get back to me. I called Fri and they told me it would be $1000 for them to run the cable to my house. I checked with cable suppliers and the cost of cable for underground is $186 for 1000 feet. This is for 14 gauge cable. I know how to run the cable from my house to the pole, afterall it is my rope inside the PVC. Oh the rep at the cable company siad that it was illegal for me to buy the cable needed in Conn. I asked her if I needed a Dr.s prescripition for it. I was wondering if anybody had any in put on this. Everything is installed in the house all they have to due is connect me at the pole and give me 2 cable boxes. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Skim-coating with joint compound covers texture, renews old drywall and plaster, and leaves smooth surfaces ready to paint.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
*
Greg,
What a scam!! I would call them back on Monday and ask them how much they would charge to hook up my satellite dish.
I suppose your cable company doesn't have a competitor?
They do now.
Jeff
*Get to know your state representative. Give them a call, remind them you vote, and relay your story to them. Cable is not totally deregulated yet.FYI, Ours was run underground 450' for the normal install price, 19.95. Not normal install for neighborhood as it's all overhead. Went right to their engineering dept. Maybe all you'll have to do is bypass the "Hello, My name is...". best of luck.
*jj has a great point Greg.I listen to the Clark Howard Show daily, http://www.clarkhoward.com , a consumer advocacy radio talk show, and he cant' stand the Mega-Manopolized Cable Corps. Often discribing, what he calls "customer no-service". Unless he has stock in the dish networks, he has been unbiasedly promoting satalite technology due it's superior features. (Audio & Vidio) Just this past week one if not several outfits have promotional offers to install for free with the purchase of six premium channels, from what I understand, is still cheaper than some cable co.s comprable package deals.If you can't beat em, go around em. Or over them in this case.Got to admit, knowing myself, if I built my house and laid 600 feet of pipe for future cable, one way or the other, that pipe will have cable in it.I had a similiar problem here on the West coast. I cut an underground exposed cable line leading into the house during an addition and it was covered by the new slab. I simply asked them to look up thier records to give me an idea as to which side of the yard the cable was located. They don't do that, and after a visit from a rep and a rough estimate of $4,500.00 to saw cut the driveway to run the new line, it also became clear to me what level of cerebral matter I was dealing with. Two hours and $9.99 in materials later the cartoon network was back on.Good luck Greg.
*Greg:For a 600' run of coax, do you need a repeater or some kind of signal amplifier somewhere mid-run?Your gonna hate this, but around here, the cable company does it for free just to get your business. They install it with a plow (I think that's what you call it). It's one of those walk beside machines that cuts a curf in the soil and stuffs the wire down there all in one pass. Doesn't put it any more than about 9" deep, which can be a problem, but if you accidently cut it, they will come out and fix it for free. Phome company does it the same way with the same policies.
*Well, work out what you can with the cable people. Dereg is coming soon. Some monopolies are run brilliantly, others just like to gloat.A few suggestions:(1) Do run coax whether you subscribe or not. You may want to do so later, and there are other uses coming for cable, most notably high-speed Internet (50x telephone modem speed).(2) Don't use the cheap wire, get RG6 or better (RG59 is junk), perhaps quad-shield -- I bought 1000' cheap from a regular trade electrical supply (even HD has it);(3) I doubt 600 ft is a problem ... and try to keep it away from power lines to avoid interferance.Satellite is fine but does cost money and requires an up-front investment of a couple hundred. In any event, turn off the TV and you may find there's a lot of other neat stuff to do with your time.And take a moment to write a letter or two of protest.
*Down here where I live, the cable company is called TCI.TCI also owns the satelite distributors, and they are the suppliers for most of the programming. About the only way to avoid them altogether is to go to Radio Shack to get the satelite (their's isn't TCI)In my area, they will run 300' of cable for free. After that, they charge per foot. I do not have cable service, but I have the cable already run. I ran my out to the pole. Now all they'll have to do is connect at the pole if I ever subscribe.Just a thought...James DuHamel
*What about setting up your "service entrance" at the street? A 4x4 p.t. post with a small box on it hidden in the shrubs would work. Have the cable co. drop the cable into your box and you just do the "inside" wiring yourself.
*Among the better tidbits of advice you got was to opt for the better quality coax cable. Your cable company may imply it's proprietary, but it's widely available. Try Allied Electronics, if no other sources seem readily at hand. Avoid splices as much as possible -- cable stinks enough, as it is, without further degradation. Leave no open "out" leads, 'cause the cable Gestapo will get you for leaking signal if they aren't capped. Caps are at Radios Shack or Allied.
*Steve, As I mentioned Comcast told me it was illegal to buy the cable in Conn. I laughed at that, there a dozen places to buy cable from. The question is will they let me run it.
*Greg: It's YOUR property - run the cable or put in a fish pond or whatever - they have NOTHING to say about it.Another piece of advice you got - do not splice - and while we are at it, don't run it in the same conduitt as electical service - you will pick up too much AC. I agree with the others, buy the best cable and install it whether you need it now or not - sure will be good to have it if you need it. I have TCI also and they do this for free. Sorry, but I tend to get militant when anyone tries to tell me what I can and can't do on my property. Jared
*Greg, go get a satellite dish,for under 300.00 you can wire it yourself and have more channels than you could ever watch. then phone the cable co. and tell them to go to Hell.
*Cox Communications is our cable company. New service costs about $80. They just ran about 100' of underground and detailed 5 outlets for me. All included in the basic $80 fee. I used RG-6 in the house. About $35 for 500' at an electric supply house. Cable company wants home runs for all outlets to a single point on the outside of the house. They want to bond to the common ground at the electrical service entry if possible. The cable they layed is orange, about a half inch in diamiter, and marked "13mm in conduit". The conductor is also more substantial than the one in RG-6. Never seen the stuff before. Think that in a 600' run you are going to lose signal strength if you use RG-6. I suggest you talk to a cable service technician the next time you see one. I have always found the installers to be knowledgable and a lot more flexable than the people in the office who work from scripts and are subject to "quality control monitoring." Good luck.
*I agree with the satellite dish recomendation. A DSS dish is inexpensive (even a dual output dish to allow you to watch 2 different channels on different TV's), the signal is crystal clear, the customer service is good, the monthly bills are cheaper (my old cable bills were $50 per month by the time they added endless taxes and maintenence fees, now I pay a flat $30 per month for the same channels with no extra fees and much better movie and sports options), they are easy to wire (and with some cheap splitters and possibly some signal amplifiers, the signal can be run to multiple rooms). Even if cable internet becomes more popular, there will always be other non-cable options (ie. high speed phone service, satellite connections). I enjoyed my phone call to the cable company to cancel my account. I can't forsee ever going back.
*You might try playing dumb. I had a similar problem getting the utilities moved (power, telephone, cable) from an overhead service to an underground service attached to the garage. Customer service only understands new home construction (no service what so ever) and existing structure (lines are already their). Usually I just told them I built a new house on an empty lot (regardless of what their records said). The installers understand the situation. When they get to the site they can put two and two together and come up with the appropriate service charge (or none). If you explain your burried pipe (and snake rope) to an installer, they'll probably be more than happy to accomodate. Or maybe not.BTW my cable service change was free service. The guy even came on sunday afternoon to fit my schedule. Not that I don't have my own complaints about cable....
*Greg, One of my many jobs was as a cable installer for a company in Baltimore. Most cable companies, and I am not that far from you, use Independend sub contractors. The company itself, here, does only the overhead work. Under ground work to existing homes is dne by a contractor who carries the insurance for a Ditch witch to run the cable. New construction cable runs are considered low voltage and can be done by a liscensed electrician. We, the installers must do the hook ups and load test all outlets for signal strength. That is part of the installation fee. We were not reqired to ask how the cable was run and were required to run new cable if the existing didn't spec out. Two things, if you run or can have an electrician run yours ( he should be able to because he can run low voltage inside and out as part of the permit) don't do any hook ups or crimp on any connectors, they will just be cut off and reinstalled. Also, run enough cable to have an unbroken or spliced line from the Cable companies hub to the inside of the house were you are going to have your splices from the rough in, if you have plans of computer access from your cable provider. The reason for the unbroken/unspliced line is signal strength and clearity of the data stream. The signal degrades to much for computer data at each break. Inside the house a specific splitter will separate data from tv and send it to your computer. ( the splices inside the home will also effect the strength.)We had to have only one break, at the splitter, between the hub and computer for this type of data.