ᐅ Have your home connected directly by the local internet provider?

We are now going to order the utility connections for our house. Netze-BW requires a multi-utility connection at our location.

Telecom costs a flat rate of €800 (about $870) – we are currently with them. However, I also wanted to have Unitymedia installed "just in case." At the moment, they charge €1600 (about $1740), without any discounts for signing a new contract or similar. The representative from the homeowners’ department suggested that we should have a conduit installed in case the price becomes more reasonable in the future.

Is this conduit automatically included when installing a multi-utility connection, or do I need to order it separately from the general contractor or civil engineer?

goalkeeper schrieb:


Is the empty conduit automatically installed with a multi-utility connection, or do I need to order it separately from the general contractor/underground contractor?

The multi-utility connection typically has 4 openings. These 4 openings bring in gas, water, electricity, and internet. Sometimes pipes can be shared, for example, the telephone line is often installed additionally in the same conduit.
The construction management probably means that you should install an empty conduit from the street to the multi-utility connection.
The advantage is that you won’t have to dig up half of your garden to get the internet provider connected, or even worse, tear up a paved driveway. Instead, you just dig two holes: one at the street near the main line and your empty conduit, and one at your house entry point.
I quickly sketched something with Paint. Hopefully, that makes it clearer.

You need to order the empty conduit from your underground contractor or handle it yourself.
I would go to the hardware store and buy the pipe myself. A KG pipe DN 110 (about 4 inches) should be more than enough. A 2m (6.5 ft) length costs around 5€.
Then just lay it in the trench or treat the workers to breakfast so they might make the trench 10cm (4 inches) wider. Measure briefly to mark the start and end points for later reference. Done.

Is the telecom company still installing traditional copper wiring, or are you getting fiber optic? If it’s the latter, in my opinion, any additional medium is a waste of money.

guckuck2 schrieb:

Is Telekom still installing traditional copper lines, or are you getting fiber optic? If it’s the latter, any additional media in my opinion is a waste of money.

Traditional copper – for an extra 420 € (about 455 USD) NetzeBW kindly installs an empty conduit for a possible future fiber optic cable.

goalkeeper schrieb:

Old-school copper – for an extra 420 € (about 470 USD), NetzeBW kindly installs an empty conduit for a possible future fiber optic cable.

It ends in your access point at the sidewalk or in the street. That’s how it is here. We also had Unitymedia install it, in addition to copper and the fiber optic empty conduit. For us, it was 600 € (about 670 USD) without a contract.

When deciding, I would consider leaving out Telekom and having cable with a tariff installed directly (=lower connection costs?). Copper is outdated in the end.