How Is Fiber Internet Installed?
Tachus Community
July 14, 2023
Before Tachus can serve your neighborhood with our blazing-fast Internet, we have to build our 100% Fiber infrastructure in your area. Because we build and install our own Fiber network into our communities, many of which don’t already have Fiber, this can be an extensive process with several steps. Here are the steps taken to install Fiber Internet in a community:
- Planning and Permitting
- Flagging and Locating
- Digging and Conduit Placement
- Fiber Pulling and Splicing
- Drop Bury and Installation
But first, learn about our registration process.
Step 1: Planning and Permitting
We begin planning the construction phase once enough residents in a community have reserved their addresses with Tachus. Our engineering, network planning, and construction project management teams meticulously develop a plan for your community and work with local authorities on permitting and similar issues.
In the case of apartment complexes and gated communities, we have to separately get permission to plan and perform construction with the property owner, HOA board, or any other party that we would need approval from. In most other cases Tachus doesn’t need to do this because, as a registered utility under the Texas Public Utilities Commission, we have the legal right to build in the front right-of-way in coordination with county and municipal authorities.
Step 2: Flagging and Locating
Before we begin work in an area, we have to first learn the location of any existing underground utility lines where we plan to work. We do this by calling Texas811 to request that any existing utility lines be located. Once we call 811, we wait 48 hours for utility locators and utility companies to mark the locations of their underground lines. They usually do this with colored flags and paint.
If you see these markings on your street, do not move them. Leaving them where you find them will help protect the underground utility lines beneath them during construction. Once the utilities have been located, we begin our construction.
During this time, we also recommend that you mark the location of any sprinklers, buried pet fences, or other private buried systems. We don’t know the location of these, so if you mark them with flags, steaks
Step 3: Digging and Conduit Placement
For the first stage construction, our contractor uses a directional bore to place our conduit in the ground along your street’s front right-of-way. The conduit is the thick cable that houses and protects the Fiber line. At this point, we only place the empty conduit; the Fiber itself will be installed later.
You can tell if a conduit is ours by looking at its color; Tachus lays a bright green conduit in our communities. If you see a different colored conduit, it’s likely a different utility company that’s working on your street.
Because our crews use directional boring as opposed to trenching to place the conduit, their work is minimally invasive to the ground’s surface. During this process, our crews also install a small buried hatch called a flowerpot in front of each home.
These flowerpots will be used to house and protect the connection point between our network and the Fiber cable that will be run up to your home. These flowerpots will also be used by our crews and technicians to access that connection point.
Digging is always going to be an uncomfortable this process, and we try to make it go as smoothly as possible. If one of our contractors does end up damaging your property in any way, reach out to the name and number on the door tag left behind by the construction crew working on your street. You can also open a case and we will promptly coordinate repairs.
Step 4: Fiber Pulling and Splicing
The second part of our construction phase involves installing the fiber-optic cable itself. We do this by pulling the Fiber though the already buried conduit and feeding it along your street’s front right-of-way. The Fiber line is then spliced and connected back to our cabinet.
Step 5: Drop Bury and Installation
After the conduit has been placed and the Fiber has been pulled, we begin installing to individual homes. If you reserved with Tachus, you’ll be able to schedule your installation before your neighbors. Prior to your installation appointment, we send a drop bury crew to run your dedicated Fiber line, which will be connected from your flowerpot to your home, up to the side of your house.
Before this happens, we recommend that you once again make sure any of your private utility lines like buried pet fences and sprinkler systems are marked.
On the day of your installation appointment, a Tachus field service technician will visit your home to install our Fiber modem. Our technician will install a small utility box on the outside of your home, which will be used to bring the Fiber line into your home and into your Fiber modem, which will be installed inside your home. To do this, the technician will need access to your yard as well as the inside of your home.
Once that happens, you will finally have access to our blazing-fast Fiber Internet service. The process is long, but worth the wait. Our fiber-optic Internet connection not only offers blazing-fast upload and download speeds, but it’s also reliable, durable, and free of any slow-downs, throttling, or data caps.
You will wonder how you were ever able to use anything besides Tachus Fiber to connect to the Internet.
Interested in getting blazing-fast, reliable Tachus Fiber Internet to your community? Reserve your address and bring us to your area even faster!