Residential Fiber Installation Series: Locating Fiber Lines

November 12th, 2020

This is the first blog in a series we’ll be posting about how we bring our fiber lines into residential homes. We also recorded this process to show you how it all works, so make sure to check out the video above.

Steps to getting UTOPIA Fiber in your home

When you sign up for UTOPIA Fiber, we call Blue Stakes on your behalf to mark the lines in your yard before we dig to install the conduit that our fiber runs through. In this blog, we’ll explain to you how Locate Technicians mark and locate lines underground.

Here are the steps to getting UTOPIA Fiber installed:

  1. Sign up on our website or call our Customer Service Team at (801) 613-3880.
  2. Our team will reach out to you and schedule your conduit installation and (optional) walk-through/site survey.
  3. Site survey/walk-through (optional).
  4. Locate Technicians mark the underground lines in your yard (within 72 hours).
  5. Conduit is placed by our conduit installation team.
  6. Your fiber line is pulled through the conduit into your home.
  7. Set up your router and you’re ready to start streaming!

UTOPIA Fiber Locate Technician Team

UTOPIA Fiber recently hired a team of 11 in-house Locate Technicians who are responsible for marking our existing fiber lines when Blue Stakes is called. We went along on a call with one of our Locate Technicians, Tom, who demonstrated for us how our Locate Technicians mark our fiber lines. This process is very similar to how water, power, gas, and other companies mark the lines in your yard before we install conduit.

Blue Stakes

Before you dig in your yard, it’s very important to call Blue Stakes at 811 or to go to bluestakes.org so that you don’t hit any important underground lines while digging. When you call Blue Stakes, they will send a notification to all the utility owners and each company will come to mark their lines in your yard with spray paint and flags. The paint that is used to mark your lawn is a non-toxic paint that doesn’t stain grass and should start to fade after a few weeks. Each company uses a distinct color to mark their lines, below is a breakdown of what those colors mean.

blue stake

How Locate Technicians locate underground lines

To find and mark lines in the ground, Locate Technicians uses a receiver and transmitter. The receiver picks up the signal or frequency that the transmitter puts out.

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The transmitter is hooked up on one end to a metallic object (lead) that is placed in the ground. An electromagnetic frequency is placed on that object so that the receiver can pick it up. Then, the other end is placed on the tracer that runs through the line underground. The tracer is what the receiver picks up to locate the line.

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The technician will follow this frequency and mark the lines on the grass above it to show where the line is underground.

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Once the technician has marked out the entire property, the rest of the utility companies will come in and mark their own lines. All lines will be marked within 72 hours, and then the homeowner is given clearance to start digging.

Up Next

Next month we’ll be recording a conduit installation at a resident’s home and we’ll show you how that process works. Reach out to us at communications@utopiafiber.com if you have any questions, we’d love to chat with you!