No construction will take palce on private property.

During our Fibre To The Home network construction work will be conducted under a municipal consent permit. The permit allows for the installation of our infrastructure on municipal property. This is typically known as a Right-Of-Way or ROW for short and is the area between the edge of the road and your property line.

Municipal consent is provided by the muncipality that maintains the road. It is not uncommon for a project to have multiple municipal consent permits issued from different authorities based on where work is taking place.

Our Fibre To The Home network consists of our backbone infrastructure and end user connection infrastructure. The backbone infrastructure consists of 38mm or 50mm orange ducts that are placed in the ground along the boulevard and municipal right of ways. These ducts are placed in the ground at a typical depth of 1m and located between the property line and the end of the road. The exact location will vary based upon other underground utilities.

Ducts are placed underground using either Horizontal Direction Drilling where a drill such as the one below is used to create an underground path between two points without the need cut open the surface above.

At times ducts are also placed in the ground using an open trench. The trench is backfilled immediately after the duct has been placed in side of it and the surface is restored when construction has been completed. Below is an example of an open trench.



The ducts are run to underground vaults also known as ground level boxes. These boxes serve as connection points where customer service drop wires are connected to the backbone network. Customer service drop wires are run from each vault to single homes and are placed in the ground 8-12″ at the time of installation.

You may notice that green boxes such as the one below have been placed in the area. These boxes act as a point for connection between the backbone fibre network and the individual homes that are connected. Typically one box will connect 4-6 homes. The boxes are known as Vaults or Ground Level Box (GLB) and are installed flush to grade. While not always possible we do our best to place these boxes in common locations where existing infrastructure exists such as where an existing hydro transform is located.

The flags and paint markings you may see around your property are locate markings. These markings indicate where existing underground infrastructure exists and are marked / flagged by the owner of the infrastructure.

Locates are required prior to any construction commencing upon completion of work our team will remove all flags. The paint used will wash away and leave no permanent markings.

If locates have been made on or around your property please visit our construction updates page for more details of work being done in the area or contact our construction hot line at 1-866-304-9117 or via email ftthconstruction@standardbroadband.ca

During construction our teams will be working in areas of the boulevard. Depending on the equipment used and work being conducted the area my become disturbed. Standard Broadband will restore all areas to the condition they were in upon completion of work in the area. Typically with-in 30 days from the completion of construction work. If work is completed in the fall full restoration may take place the following spring where grass seeding and sodding is required.

For more information about specific restoration work or locations that require restoration work please contact our construction hot line at 1-866-304-9117 or via email ftthconstruction@standardbroadband.ca

The black wire you may see along the boulevard is known as a service drop wire. This wire is used to connect a single home to our network and is run from the nearest vault or ground level box.


The service drop wire is normally run along the surface during installation and should be placed in the ground within 48 hours after the installation. If you notice a cable that has been on the surface for more than a few days please contact our construction hot line at 1-866-304-9117 or via email ftthconstruction@standardbroadband.ca and they will ensure the wire is buried promptly.

If a service drop becomes damaged or broken during the winter months and a new wire is run. Placing that new service drop in the ground may not be possible immediately however our construction team will bury them as the ground thaws in the early spring.