What on earth is this grey Telstra box on my house?

[Liam]

Hey guys, well I have a kind of odd situation.. I didn't know which section to post this under, but I put it under here since BigPond is owned by Telstra, and I assumed this is telstra related. Anyhow, I've always wanted to know what this box is for.


I am indeed living in a unit, but I've never seen these installed on any other units before. This box is installed to my unit, so it's clearly for my house; so I want to know what it's for? I've seen the technitians install these on houses, but never on units. Now, on the 25th a technitian will be coming out to apparently 'install' my Optus internet connection; so I called up Optus to ask if the technitian will need access to anything, and they said he'll need access to the "MDU Box" – I am not sure if this is the MDU Box, or something else is?


If someone could clarify all this, it'd be amazing! Cheers.


Images of the box on my house:

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[Rishwin]

Hey, Telstra rep here lol.

Yep call it what you may that is your MDU or LUCA box or lead-in. However as Telstra & Optus own their own lines I'm not 100% if they will also use that, or if they will install another. Is your unit newer than the others or built later? Theirs may be inbuild somewhere inside whereas yours may have been added later.

Do you currently have a working phoneline there or are they also installing that?

 

[Liam]

Hey Rish, right, great. Now there's about 8 units in my block, and they all have these installed on them for each unit, the units are about 2 years old now, so fairly new. Now, I had TPG connected at my house at one point, and they didn't have to install anything; they just sent out the modem and home phone and I just connected it into the wall socket (of course with a splitter) and they turned on the internet on their end, and it all worked.

Now I ordered Optus, and only just recently the order status updated to saying a technitian will come out on the 25th to install my connection. So I called them up about this, and the representative told me that a technitian needs to be sent out because on their end there doesn't seem to be a active line installed in the house..... when indeed there is, all the sockets are installed, and each unit has their own little grey box installed - which indicates to me there is no MDU box which organizes the lot of the units internet connection. So I don't know why they'd need to send a technitian out..

 

[Rishwin]

Yeh if you had a central one everyone connects to, that would be an MDF. If that was the case they would most probably only connect up to that & assume everything from there to your unit is fine (not part of their network).

As i was saying, Telstra & Optus are the only 2 actual provers in Australia & all others are wholesalers of these 2. TPG is Telstra wholesale, so that would be your existing line hence no technician. Optus is saying there is no line connected to the premises because it is a Telstra line. As far as they are concerned, there is nothing there they can work with. They will most likely install a 2nd box there, or add a 2nd line inside that box (i'm not 100% on if they are allowed to touch the Telstra box).

Basically if you had gone with a Telstra wholesale ISP you would already be connected

 

[Liam]

@Rishwin - I gotcha! That probably explains a lot, you've helped me more than Telstra and Optus.... Also, how is it going to work? All the wall sockets are already installed, so will they have to install more? Or will they just rewire it so it's with Optus? Because this house has everything pre-installed, like all these ports in every single room

Kitchen (where I previously had a TPG connection):

My bedroom:

Loungeroom:

So I'm hoping that they don't have to install more of those sockets?

 

[Rishwin]

Haha no probs mang well i gotta give some credit to Telstra for hiring a smart young lad such as myself, too bad only business customers get to experience the sensation that is Rish. :junglejane:

Yea they won't be disconnecting any of those sockets that lead to Telstra lines so most likely they will indeed be installing another socket somewhere inside the premises. Most likely just on the other side of that wall the LUCA box is sitting on.

 

[Liam]

Haha no probs mang well i gotta give some credit to Telstra for hiring a smart young lad such as myself, too bad only business customers get to experience the sensation that is Rish. :junglejane:

Yea they won't be disconnecting any of those sockets that lead to Telstra lines so most likely they will indeed be installing another socket somewhere inside the premises. Most likely just on the other side of that wall the LUCA box is sitting on.

Oh really, poop. That's so stupid, I don't know how they're going to install it? Like I don't know how this stuff works, but how do they do it? Because there's no roof on my unit, and all the outside walls are concrete..



Oh, also, I forgot to ask. As you see in the pictures.. The kitchen is where I originally had the modem setup, but as you can see in the loungeroom, there's also another port? Could this possibly be a spare one or something, what is this one for? Because when I had TPG connected, they told me to connect the splitter into a socket; and then they did some debugging to enable the right port on their end, and it turned out the port in the loungeroom was not connectable so they told me to check for other ports, so I tried the kitchen one and they successfuly got the connection on.. So what does this possibly mean?

OFFT: At least I get to experience some of Rish's sensation

 

[Rishwin]

Haha that sounds weird, stay away from my sensations >_>

Ahhh OK well if that other socket in the lounge didn't have an active phone line then Optus may simply use that.

 

[Liam]

Haha that sounds weird, stay away from my sensations >_>

Ahhh OK well if that other socket in the lounge didn't have an active phone line then Optus may simply use that.

Oh, it sure does ._. NEVURR.

Let's damn well bloody hope so, if things don't turn out well for me.. I might aswell just bloody kill myself, with my luck -..- Anyways, if there's anything else or any updates I'll just keep this thread updated I guess Cheers for the help man, really appreciated.

 

[Monolith]

I used to do a little cable TV installing here in the US...and by what you are saying your place is like...they will probably just drill a hole through the wall the box is on and install the port on the opposite side of it...at least thats what they would do in that situation here in the US.