What does the cable guy actually do?
August 28, 2018 7:04 PM Subscribe
After a harrowing week of trying and failing to get an installation team to activate my cable internet package, in an apartment that previously received the same service from the same provider, I'm curious about what is actually involved in this procedure.
NB: I am not in the US, but I have to guess that this technology is more or less the same everywhere.
I'd always assumed that when a company sends somebody to activate your internet it's basically a really expensive way to pay somebody to plug in your modem for you, but there's no self-service option in my location. My apartment is already wired for cable and I know the person here previously had internet/phone/television provided by the same company I'm using. What threw me for a loop, when the technician came today to attempt installation, was that he first spent some time outside the apartment doing... something, together with the complex's maintenance team, and then, before he started with the plugging-in-of-the-modem phase, he did something else with the apartment's electrical panel (I don't actually know what this panel is and wasn't in the room when he unscrewed and opened it. It's called an electrical panel in Spanish, is next to but distinct from the circuit breakers, and is covered by a sheet of metal screwed in on four sides - it's obviously not meant to be opened regularly). What was he doing with those two steps, and how does this process work in general?
NB: I am not in the US, but I have to guess that this technology is more or less the same everywhere.
I'd always assumed that when a company sends somebody to activate your internet it's basically a really expensive way to pay somebody to plug in your modem for you, but there's no self-service option in my location. My apartment is already wired for cable and I know the person here previously had internet/phone/television provided by the same company I'm using. What threw me for a loop, when the technician came today to attempt installation, was that he first spent some time outside the apartment doing... something, together with the complex's maintenance team, and then, before he started with the plugging-in-of-the-modem phase, he did something else with the apartment's electrical panel (I don't actually know what this panel is and wasn't in the room when he unscrewed and opened it. It's called an electrical panel in Spanish, is next to but distinct from the circuit breakers, and is covered by a sheet of metal screwed in on four sides - it's obviously not meant to be opened regularly). What was he doing with those two steps, and how does this process work in general?
There is often a panel inside the apartment that offers access to the apartment's in-wall wiring for radio frequency (antenna, cable) and telecommunications (phone, DSL, door opener, etc). Buildings are often permanently wired for these things in order to avoid the difficulty of running new wires. You have wires that run within the apartment to the various jacks around the apartment, and wires running back to the apartment building's service terminals ("demarc"), which is where the services enter the building and are then distributed.
For cable, work done in the apartment panel may include installing an appropriate splitter, disconnecting unused jacks in the apartment, which helps minimize signal loss. For DSL, this may include adjusting a number of things, including a DSL splitter/filter, etc. In cases where you have a door buzzer or intercom circuit, this may also need to be adjusted especially if your voice service transitions to VoIP.
Work done at the building's service terminals (demarc) might need to be coordinated with the apartment building's maintenance team, especially if it involves adjustments to the door buzzer/intercom controller, which is usually a device in a telecom closet or other service area. The service terminals should really be locked away somewhere, but often aren't.
Cable internet speeds have tended to increase over time, and radio frequency cabling that was adequate for older DOCSIS might no longer be as suitable for modern versions, and the technician might have reterminated cables in an effort to improve signal strength, replace a corroded connector, or made other adjustments at the building terminal, or in the apartment panel.
It is certainly true in many cases that the service call may not result in much actual work, but a diligent installer will still check signal levels and eyeball everything to make sure it will be good for some time to come. Truck rolls are expensive, and it can be a rare opportunity to do cleanup and repair on your infrastructure. It's not really easy to know what might have been done.
posted by jgreco at 9:14 PM on August 28, 2018 [5 favorites]
For cable, work done in the apartment panel may include installing an appropriate splitter, disconnecting unused jacks in the apartment, which helps minimize signal loss. For DSL, this may include adjusting a number of things, including a DSL splitter/filter, etc. In cases where you have a door buzzer or intercom circuit, this may also need to be adjusted especially if your voice service transitions to VoIP.
Work done at the building's service terminals (demarc) might need to be coordinated with the apartment building's maintenance team, especially if it involves adjustments to the door buzzer/intercom controller, which is usually a device in a telecom closet or other service area. The service terminals should really be locked away somewhere, but often aren't.
Cable internet speeds have tended to increase over time, and radio frequency cabling that was adequate for older DOCSIS might no longer be as suitable for modern versions, and the technician might have reterminated cables in an effort to improve signal strength, replace a corroded connector, or made other adjustments at the building terminal, or in the apartment panel.
It is certainly true in many cases that the service call may not result in much actual work, but a diligent installer will still check signal levels and eyeball everything to make sure it will be good for some time to come. Truck rolls are expensive, and it can be a rare opportunity to do cleanup and repair on your infrastructure. It's not really easy to know what might have been done.
posted by jgreco at 9:14 PM on August 28, 2018 [5 favorites]
Cable internet speeds have tended to increase over time, and radio frequency cabling that was adequate for older DOCSIS might no longer be as suitable for modern versions, and the technician might have reterminated cables in an effort to improve signal strength, replace a corroded connector, or made other adjustments at the building terminal, or in the apartment panel.
It is certainly true in many cases that the service call may not result in much actual work, but a diligent installer will still check signal levels and eyeball everything to make sure it will be good for some time to come. Truck rolls are expensive, and it can be a rare opportunity to do cleanup and repair on your infrastructure. It's not really easy to know what might have been done.
In theory this is what every installer is doing. They have equipment they can connect that will tell them signal strength and quality, and they can eyeball loose or corroded connectors and quickly terminate the cables again. One thing that comes into play in higher density areas (where there are more customers per network node or demarcation point) is that there's some inflection point where the density warrants making adjustments to signal amplification upstream or adding new hardware to create extra capacity. A good technician and a good dispatcher will make sure those things happen.
In addition to the testing they're also supposed to be labeling things as they go so the next technician doesn't have to guess if any particular line is really in use. In practice they don't often do either of those things, so you get problems like I had in one apartment building where an installer connecting service to another tenant's apartment just disconnected mine (which wasn't labeled), rather than add the next termination block required for the number of customers in the building.
posted by fedward at 7:45 AM on August 29, 2018
It is certainly true in many cases that the service call may not result in much actual work, but a diligent installer will still check signal levels and eyeball everything to make sure it will be good for some time to come. Truck rolls are expensive, and it can be a rare opportunity to do cleanup and repair on your infrastructure. It's not really easy to know what might have been done.
In theory this is what every installer is doing. They have equipment they can connect that will tell them signal strength and quality, and they can eyeball loose or corroded connectors and quickly terminate the cables again. One thing that comes into play in higher density areas (where there are more customers per network node or demarcation point) is that there's some inflection point where the density warrants making adjustments to signal amplification upstream or adding new hardware to create extra capacity. A good technician and a good dispatcher will make sure those things happen.
In addition to the testing they're also supposed to be labeling things as they go so the next technician doesn't have to guess if any particular line is really in use. In practice they don't often do either of those things, so you get problems like I had in one apartment building where an installer connecting service to another tenant's apartment just disconnected mine (which wasn't labeled), rather than add the next termination block required for the number of customers in the building.
posted by fedward at 7:45 AM on August 29, 2018
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Also, if your cable modem is in a different location than the previous subscribers' was, some adjustment to the wiring may have been necessary if there was, for example, a directional splitter feeding a modem outlet and two others from the single wire coming from the cable company.
posted by wierdo at 7:15 PM on August 28, 2018 [1 favorite]