Apartment solution

Rental properties

There are several methods of broadband installation for rental properties, depending on the local conditions in terms of cable routing and ducting. One interesting approach is to use existing ducting for cable TV systems. When installation contractor AT-Installation AB was appointed to install fibre in a housing cooperative in Mölnlycke, they quickly realised that the conduits for the cable TV network could be used to run fibre cable to each apartment.

Background
The estate consists of four residential blocks with four apartments per floor -  a total of about 150 apartments. Ducting to the apartments starts from a shared service room in the basement, with four separate conduits running vertically through each of the apartments. The conduits are 16 mm in size. The aerial outlet in each apartment is in the same place – next to the vertical ducting running through the apartments from floor to floor.

Procedure
Nexans GAL micro cable was chosen for the project. With an external diameter of just 1.2 mm, this fibre cable is ideally suited to jetting and it is not normally used in ducting because there is no strain relief. However in this situation, the product can be considered if the ducting is appropriate.

First, the coaxial cable for the cable TV was removed from the ducting. To make it easier to pull the thin fibre cables, the conduits were also cleaned with air. Four GALDV cables were then pulled through the conduits simultaneously using a pull string. There are a few twists and turns in the first section from the basement to apartment 1 (15 – 20 m) but the installer reported a smooth process with no resistance.

From apartment 1 upwards, the ducting is vertical and straight with no turns. For these sections, the existing coaxial cable was used as a pull string for the remaining fibre cables.

Inside the apartment
The service provider's media converter was placed directly on top of the box for the aerial outlet, in order to create a protected fibre connection into the media converter.

The Nexans building network solutions are compatible with most of the methods in use in the market. Running micro cable through existing ducting is an effective method and the installer was very happy with the result. They will certainly use the method again in future projects if they get the chance.