Ultra-fast broadband terminal installed in toilet

An ultrafast broadband installation that technicians have jokingly dubbed "fibre to the throne" has left New Zealand networking company Chorus red-faced. An optical network terminal (ONT) - where optical-fibre transitions to home wiring - was installed on the back wall of a toilet in a Lower Hutt home with leads draped over the lid of the cistern. It shared a power socket with a washing machine and had to be plugged when that was in use.

In its annual report, TDR recounted a complaint it had received from a 71 year-old woman who was asked to stand on a hot water cylinder to plug in her phone. That was so technicians could troubleshoot a problem with her landline, after an ONT was installed in her hot water cupboard. Pullen said that case was an extreme and "bizarre" example of a wider issue of UFB installers placing equipment where it was convenient for them, rather than homeowners.

Chorus typically received about 10 "queries" on the 600 installs it arranged each day, Chorus spokesman Nathan Beaumont said. "Anyone who has any experience of building projects of this nature will know occasionally there will be snags."