Fibre optic: the operator agreement the condo board should read
Fibre looks like a free formality. It is a multi-year agreement committing the building's common areas.
An operator offers to install fibre "at no cost to the association". The resolution passes without discussion — who would vote against fibre? — and nobody has read the agreement that comes with it.
It deserves reading: it is a long-term contract allowing a third party to install and operate a network in the building's common areas.
The clauses to examine
- The term of the agreement and its renewal or termination conditions.
- The precise cable routing: riser, ducts used, crossings of landings, visible fixings. Ask for a drawing, not a generic description.
- The location of the pooling point and the space it occupies in the common areas.
- Reinstatement after works, and who signs it off.
- Liability for damage to common areas during or after installation.
- Access for other operators: an agreement creating de facto exclusivity deserves careful examination.
- What becomes of the installation at the end of the term: removal, abandonment, transfer?
"Free" describes the installation cost, not the commitments made for twenty years.
What the board brings
The building's history, once again. Are the service ducts already saturated by existing networks? Has a previous operator been through, and in what state did they leave the landings? That information belongs in the building maintenance log.
The board can also ask for the agreement to be circulated with the notice rather than tabled in the room. A twenty-page agreement discovered on the evening of the vote cannot be examined seriously: see how to get an item onto the agenda with its annexes.
During and after installation
Photograph landings and ducts before the crews arrive, as for any project — see the issue log. Afterwards, check fixings, making good and the cleanliness of common areas, and report snags in writing without delay.
Individual connection requests are then handled as they come. They follow the same logic as EV charger requests: an individual request using common areas.
Finding the agreement in ten years
The day a dispute arises — a cable torn out during facade works, an operator no longer answering — it is the agreement that must be produced. With CoproHarmony it stays filed with its resolution and the site photos. Create your space for free.
The roof attracts a related but far heavier request: installing a mobile antenna.
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