Signed up for internet recently and the NTT dude came by today to do construction.
He opened the phone port in my apartment and couldn’t find the fibre line. He then went to the toilet and checked the false ceiling, but couldn’t find the line either. Following that, he went downstairs to check (I’m assuming the building’s Main Distribution Frame), came back up and started using one of those cable fishing tools from the utility closet (where the electricity and water meters are) outside my apartment door and tried to route it into the apartment. I could hear the sound of the tool in my apartment but couldn’t find an outlet. The NTT guy tells me that the 配管 (piping) is supposedly blocked and asked if the apartment was recently renovated, which it was.
I then asked him to try the false ceiling access in the pantry, which is located beside the phone port. NTT guy did the whole fishing thing and couldn’t find the outlet. He says I’ll need to ask the building management or landlord (I wasn’t sure which) and get them to clear/drill a hole before we can reschedule.
The thing is, I don’t exactly know where the blockage is or how much construction is needed. I took a look at the conduit where the phone port is, tried to trace vertically up to the blockage, and realised it’s blocked by wood (stud?), and tracing it up leads to the pantry light switch. The cable to the phone port is channelled through a hole in the stud. Tracing it further upwards leads to another horizontal stud, which is where the intercom is. I couldn’t check further as that would require me to rip the intercom out of the drywall. In the case of the false ceiling access in the pantry, I have no idea where it starts or ends.
If I were to contact the building management, would they know what to do? Is there a possibility of them saying no? What do I tell them exactly?
If they say yes, do I need to source my own construction dude? How much would a procedure like that cost? Does anyone know of an English-speaking construction dude in Kyoto?
In the event of management saying no, what can I do? Can I get it done privately?
If I were to cancel my contract, I would likely have to pay a penalty since it’s beyond the free cancellation period.
I’m probably in a similar situation as this person here https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/k7kk8s/ntt_upgrade_requires_drilling_a_hole_in_the_wall/
Any advice is appreciated. Let me know if photos are needed to further explain the issue at hand.
4 comments
You need to ask the landlord;
but probably they would say no or, will say that you can do it privately (you can ask NTT if they can do the work or know someone) or through a authorized vendor of the landlord (can be expensive).
If you go through it, there is the possibility of you paying the “recovery”, meaning that you need to pay any construction to fill the hole, etc. once you end the contract.
Once I had a similar situation for a A/C, but the landlord said that we didn’t need to pay for it since it was useful for the next customer.
Need a bit more info.
Is the building already served by NTT?
Are they already routing centrally to some units from downstairs? Is it an actual closet, or a box installed on the side of the building?
Any straight from the pole, and is that an option? Ingress via AC is much less invasive.
Ask the management company to contact the contractor who did the renovations. They’d have the plans they used to re-finish the walls.. maybe they did something sneaky and split the conduit off to go towards another area, and an additional outlet can be installed / an existing outlet can be converted.
Unless they advertised ntt connectivity or told it was available there are no guarrantees. That being said, if you ask the landlord they will probably ok the work to be done. They might not do it themselves but at least giver permission for you to commission it since most people like good internet and theres nothing mich to lose by refusing unless the owner themselves is a bit weird.
So yeah, just ask. But if they do refuse you cant do much other than find a new place :/
Just ask, it’s not a big deal, landlords are used to this type of request. You’re not the first and you’re not the last.
If they say OK, NTT will drill a hole in the wall the size of a 100 yen coin, drag the wire through it and put a Hikari outlet on top. Minimal damage and it’s useful for the next person.