Communications termination for exterior located Network Interface Box/Device

[katwalatapan]

Hello,

I wanted to inquire about standard industry practice for new home construction concerning demarcation of communications equipment.

Am I correct in understanding that it is usually the communications company that installs its Network Interface Box (NIB) on the home's exterior, whereas the installation of the rigid/flexible PVC conduit from the NIB to the communications enclosure inside the home is the home owner's or builder's responsibility?

Is there any specific type of termination of the communications conduit required location where the conduit enters the home, to protect any infiltration of weather related elements in a case where the owner has yet to contact the communications company?

Thank you.

 

[IRstuff]

Not sure what you're really asking. My house, built in 2007 was wired by the builder for alarm, telephone/internet, and coax. Because the house was intended to come with an installed alarm, everything up to the junction box was routed and labeled by room. Since the routing goes up from the exterior box and the back down into the inside box, no weather protection is needed; once inside the walls, it's no different than any other household wiring. Two external conduits run under and across the street to the telecom box with pull ropes already threaded through the external conduit. The cable company pulls cable through one of the conduits, connects the far end to their cable junction box and connects to my internal cable. The internal cable is routed to the internal junction box and distributed. The router is then connected to a pre-wired room and installed there, or connected directly to the incoming cable near the internal junction box.

TTFN
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[VEBill]

My house has fiber optic for phone and Internet. The Telco installed some boxes inside my house. So, the demarcation point varies depending on the technology and local practice.

Any penetration should be weather sealed; and this includes inside any conduit. One could use a bit of pink fibreglass insulation; or a very small shot of expanding foam once the installation is done.

 

[katwalatapan]

Thank you very much for your responses.

What I meant was, if a communications company has not been decided by the owner we may not see a Network Interface Box on the exterior of the home (because the communications company installs this box). My query is in such a scenario, does the contractor's responsibility end, by provided any specific type of conduit penetration into the house and provide a cover over the conduit, so that whenever a communications company is decided, they may install their Network Interface Box on the home exterior and pull cable to the communications enclosure within the home.

 

[IRstuff]

That's something that the contractor should negotiate with the owner. Trying to pull cable through interior conduit after construction is an expensive and time consuming proposition, particularly if the cable needs to be distributed to a number of rooms. Note that unless it's a line voltage cable, there are no conduits for other wiring within the house, so there will be much drilling and knashing of teeth by the installer who gets the job.

It is much better to assume that the owner WILL want cable at some point in time, and have all the interior cabling pre-wired from each room to a central junction, and provide at least 2 coax cables to an empty exterior panel box for the comm and cable etc. This avoids all sort of potential catastrophes later on. This was the way my house was built. It was also pre-wired with alarm sensors and Cat6 Ethernet cabling, which may be OBE, for the most part, now. When I added cable just this weekend, the cable installer only needed to pull cable from their street-level junction to my exterior junction, which only needed a BNC coupler. Ditto with the interior junction box; another coupler to the cable that went to where the router was going to be. Then, it was simply a matter of plugging in the router and connecting the wall connection in that room. That was barely one hour of work on the part of the installer.

If I were the contractor, that's what I would recommend; not only would I, the contractor, get paid for that installation, but it would help the owner to avoid possible issues with the installer drilling to route cables, sawing drywall to install the connect plates, etc. Also, this allows for a ore uniform and clean installation; all the wall plates would be consistent and all the wiring would be strung correctly and there would no risk to damaging existing wiring or other things that might be hiding behind the drywall.

My house also has a sprinkler system that runs on a separate plumbing system and I had need to get access to the pipe one day. So, I found the external shutoff valve and traced to where its pipe entered the wall and went up 4 ft and cut the drywall to get to the pipe, but no, the pipe actually made a right turn about a 3 inches below where I cut, and the pipe was actually about 6 inches to the right of the hole I cut. This is the sort of thing that happens when you attempt to do things after the house is completed.

The contractor does not need to worry about the NIB, or NIBs; he simply needs to allocate an exterior box to house them and provide wiring to the that box. So long as high quality coax and Cat6 cables are used inside, the cable company or internet provider simply needs to get from their street level distribution to that box. Easy peasy.

TTFN
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[IRstuff]

Another selling point is that the house is pre-wired for everything that's needed, making it a truly turn-key asset.

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