Neighbour's NBN cable sagging dangerously over driveway, how do I get it fixed?

[u/asteroidb4sunset]

I’m in Melbourne. My neighbour’s aerial NBN lead-in runs from a pole in front of my property, across my driveway (and theirs), to their house.

I measured it with a non-conductive rod at 2.48m–3.21m above my driveway, and that was in spring, so it’ll sag lower in summer. I can touch it with a jump and delivery trucks have been unable to go down our driveway because of it.

From what I can find:

• AS/CA S009:2020 cl. 19.2(b) sets 3.5m over a residential driveway.
• Comms Alliance C524:2013 Table 2 sets 3.5m over a residential driveway crossing, and Table 1 sets 4.6m for lines over land vehicles can use.
• I understand S009 strictly covers customer cabling, and C524 isn’t ACMA-registered, so I’m treating them as benchmarks.

Street View shows it went up between Oct 2018 and Jul 2019. We were living here then and have no record or recollection of any notice, and we didn’t consent. My neighbour can’t help with any of this.

What I want:

1. Short term: make it safe by raising or re-tensioning it to a compliant height.
2. Long term: reroute it so it doesn’t cross my land, e.g. from another pole or underground on their side.

Questions:

1. As a non-customer, what’s the most effective way to get NBN to act? Reporting a hazard on 1800 687 626, a written complaint, or straight to the TIO?
2. If NBN tells me to lodge a paid “relocation works” application, how do I push back and get it handled as a non-compliant safety hazard instead?
3. Has anyone got NBN to reroute a neighbour’s lead-in so it no longer crosses your property? How did it go?
4. Has anyone FOI’d NBN for land access notices or install records for their own and adjacent property?

Thanks

[u/Jerratt24]

Send a photo to NBN support line. They're pretty responsive in my experience.

[u/Ok-Guidance6127]

As a non-customer, what’s the most effective way to get NBN to act?

Accidentally drive a heightened vehicle through it might do.

[u/koopz_ay → u/Ok-Guidance6127]

The most common thing I ever had to regularly attend was garbage trucks hitting old aerial Teltra phone lines when empting bins.

Easily solved.

There's still a heap around (cough Beenleigh cough)

[u/Ok-Guidance6127 → u/koopz_ay]

Haha in the day we had a PBX in a quarry, some of the feeds were aerial and sure enough a few times a year someone went out of the yard bucket up. Good for business.

[u/ContributionEasy6513]

Report it to the NBN with some pictures. Say you measured it at below 2.5m and several delivery trucks almost snagged it. They are usually pretty good and call within a few hours.

https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/contact-us/contact-us-form?enquirytype=reporting_damage

delivery trucks

That's option 2. Stop worrying and let Startrack wipe it out.

[u/millionsofmyles]

Lots of overthinking here.

Lodge a hazard fault with photos demonstrating how low it is in comparison to a said object. Move on.

You've done your bit. It's not your line or infrastructure after all. If the customer and NBN aren't fussed...well, you can't say you didn't warn them.

[u/zyeborm]

It's not yours, it's a safety issue. Report it. If they don't fix it and a truck drives through it at night well oops.

If it's aerial delivery is probably HFC rather than fttp.

[u/asteroidb4sunset → u/zyeborm]

It is HFC - that's the only choice we have in my neighbourhood.

[u/cactuarknight → u/zyeborm]

All cables can be aerial, the fibre in my entire neighbourhood was aerial.

[u/zyeborm → u/cactuarknight]

What does the word "probably" especially when highlighted like that mean to you? Does it mean it must be HFC with no other option? Or does it mean it's probably HFC.

Which.... It was.

Yes, I know fibre and copper can be delivered by air. I've had all 3. I also know that is uncommon compared to the prevalence of HFC. Which is why I said probably meaning probable rather than it must be this and any other thing is impossible

Words have meanings.

[u/OkNeedleworker5041 → u/zyeborm]

Who pissed in your weetbix?

[u/zyeborm → u/OkNeedleworker5041]

People who make corrections that are useless and wrong. People who need endless asterisks after every statement explaining every single possible variant of a statement rather than accepting nuance or what words like "probably" mean.

Statement : The Earth will probably have air tomorrow, so you should be ok to practise your swimming.

Some twit: Oh it's entirely possible that all the air molecules might just miss each other and fly off into space! So be careful of that, it happened to my friend from another school.

Some other Twit : That's silly don't you know the escape velocity of earth means only the lightest elements can escape to space at the temperatures on earths surface!

Irritating, the lot of them.

[u/Admirable-Company452]

Use the app Snap Send Solve to report it and they will forward to NBN

[u/Born-Reason-5790]

Must be 3.7m across a driveway, if it is lower, take a photo and use Snap Send Solve app, it will be fixed within 24 hrs.

[u/Southern_Bunch_6473 → u/Born-Reason-5790]

3.5m In pretty sure

[u/dreay86]

All the standards mentioned are not applicable. They are for cabling that connects to the the telecommunications network, and specifically states that it doesn't apply to the carriers network.

[u/asteroidb4sunset → u/dreay86]

Are you saying NBN lead-ins are not part of the telecommunications network?
Which standards would apply?

[u/dreay86 → u/asteroidb4sunset]

AS/CA S009:2020

2.1(C)

[u/ogregreenteam → u/dreay86]

Nope, this only applies to customer premises cabling, not nbnco network cabling.

[u/ogregreenteam → u/ogregreenteam]

Small correction: AS/CA S009 is a customer cabling standard, not necessarily the standard governing nbn-owned carrier infrastructure. So citing S009 against nbn's network side of the boundary is usually the wrong starting point. nbn's own development standards distinguish between customer cabling and nbn network infrastructure. 12

I went looking for an actual nbn standard that specifies minimum aerial lead-in clearance over a residential driveway and couldn't find one in nbn's publicly available standards. The published nbn documents cover lead-in conduits, burial depths, utility separations, PCD locations and pathway requirements, but I couldn't find a published aerial driveway-clearance figure. 23

The commonly quoted figures of 2.7 m over non-vehicle areas, 3.5 m over residential driveways and 4.9 m over private roadways/commercial driveways appear repeatedly in contractor guidance and legacy telecom references, but I couldn't verify them as a current publicly released nbn standard. 45

If you're disputing an installation, I'd ask nbn:

"Please provide the engineering standard, design rule, work instruction or construction specification governing minimum clearance of nbn-owned aerial lead-in cabling over residential driveways, including sag allowances and vehicle access assumptions."

That forces them to identify the actual standard they're relying on rather than referring to customer-cabling rules.

Official sources:

• nbn Residential Preparation & Installation Standard (NBN-DES-STD-0011): [PDF]
• nbn Lead-in Conduit guidance: nbn Lead-in Conduit
• nbn Design & Build Guidelines: nbn Design & Build Guidelines

As a side note, general Australian utility clearance standards for vehicle-accessible areas are often substantially higher than 3.5 m. For example, utility design standards commonly require around 4.5 m over private driveways and 5.5 m over public roads, depending on the asset and jurisdiction. 67

[u/violet_1999]

I didn’t think nbn cables were allowed to go across neighbouring properties, even the aerial ones.

[u/green_tea_resistance]

AS/CA S009 relates specifically to customer premises cabling, ie, on the customer side of the network boundary, which effectively is your NTD. On the network side, telecom can do basically whatever they want. They are not bound by S009.

The cable is not inherently hazardous, it will be either fibre or SELV so theres no electrical risk, but understandable that this is annoying.

Im not sure nbnco would put your issue at the top of their priority list. They would send a tech out to fix it if somehow, God forbid, that cable got damaged by some mysterious accident that you know nothing about.

[u/Southern_Bunch_6473]

Snap send solve. Should be 3.5m at lowest point over a driveway. Also shouldn’t be hanging over your driveway at all, lead in cables are not to cross property boundaries.

[u/asteroidb4sunset → u/Southern_Bunch_6473]

Thanks. This is what I'm confused about. Is it one request or two? (e.g. an urgent safety one and then a second one about non-compliant/boundary-crossing lead-in).

[u/Southern_Bunch_6473 → u/asteroidb4sunset]

Snap send solve will get you a quick height fix. Contacting NBN will be best for explaining the property boundary.

[u/RATLSNAKE → u/Southern_Bunch_6473]

No you call NBN who’ll come the next day, in some cases same day. When it’s a safety issue they’ll mobilise fast.

[u/Southern_Bunch_6473 → u/RATLSNAKE]

Dude. I’m the guy who gets these jobs. You can do either, and yes it’s usually remediated quickly.
Completing one tomorrow that was raised last week.

[u/koopz_ay]

Grab the Snap-Send-Solve app.

Log it in there.

You could go down the slightly less legal path and use AirTasker if you are in a rush.

The correct way I do this is install a comms pole ($3200) ar the front of your property and then trench it underground to your house.

That sounds like a lot of work for sure... yet we do this with sec cams everyday.

(Edit - sec cams... not sex cams)

😅

[u/Charlie_Macaw → u/koopz_ay]

So what’s your solution for sex cams??? 🤣

[u/JustWingingIt38]

NBN Installers dont follow any standards

[u/yeet3OOO]

Time to find some hobbies maybe? It’s just glass fibre Just bend it at a right angle and it will get fixed quick smart