Hi all,
My partner and I have just recently moved from New Zealand to Tokyo, and have been having some trouble setting up our living situation.
We have been trying to set up Hikari internet in our apartment with SoftBank, but it turned out that we required construction to install the fibre cables in our apartment. The problem was, our property manager explicitly stated that no damage to the walls would be tolerated, and if we drilled any holes we would have to pay to have them repaired before we left.
After we explained the internet situation, our PM said there was a “good chance they can install the cables without doing any damage to the property. Just tell them when they arrive for construction that they cannot drill any holes.”
The man from SoftBank arrived for construction yesterday and quickly told us that it would be impossible to install the cables without drilling holes.
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**TL:DR Our main questions:**
**How much would it cost to repair holes drilled for optic fibre cables when we move out?**
**And is it worth trying to set up internet with SoftBank Air instead of Hikari, since that won’t require construction?**
**Does anyone have any similar experiences in Japan?**
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Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!
3 comments
Landlord is probably referring to mirrors and pictures and stuff. Having fibre cables is to his advantage, estate agents list it as a plus point. They probably need to drill holes to change the sockets on the wall from the old type. Just ask your landlord and I’m sure it’ll be fine.
You can feed fiber through the aircon duct 99% of the time. They would remove the outdoor cover and some of the putty thats in place, put a plastic tube there, use that to feed the fiber cable and seal it back up with putty.
The installer should have known this. And, they don’t need to drill anything indoors if you’re ok with just hanging the hikari socket or attaching it to the wall with double-sided tape. You won’t get much choice as to where install the router/etc in this case, but beats having no internet at all.
I used a different service provider and they attached a cable from the outside and pulled it to the phone jack. They replaced the phone jack cover with a fiber jack, so there wasn’t any construction per se.