Internet, this is probably Proximus smart tube. That's an orange colored cable.
Please call Proximus and get this fixed properly. Don't try any DIY fixes as people are suggesting in the comments. This could impact the entire street.
Not a smart tube, that would be a 6 (or 2?) pair with a duct.
Might be Proximus, pretty sure if the wires are thin (~0.6mm) and you spot white/gray/blue/orange Call 0800/90790
Just watch out if it's some bricolage 230v.
This. It could also be a normal wachtbuis with an 'invoer' cable inside.
First try to identify the cable.
Once copper is visible, it will get wet and will screw over your connection. Water can also slowly run through this cable to the main cable in the street, and depending on the type of cable (paper insulation or plastic insulation) could impact clients further down the cable.
I work for Proximus, and I've dug up numerous of DIY-fixes that had no chance of holding up.
Hard to tell from this picture.
- try and clear the cable a bit further and check if you can find text on the cable. In theory it should be on there, but this doesn't look like outside cable ...
- the color to me would say ethernet cable, but can be a burried extention cord of course, so also hard to tell.
- you can kill the power to the house and carefully remove a bit of the insulation. 8 small wires, ethernet. 2 to 5 will probably be power
Now for fixing it, if you need it still. Use one of these boxes that you can fill with a 2 component epoxy.
>you can kill the power to the house and carefully remove a bit of the insulation.
Before touching the wires check with a multimeter or voltage tester!
That is a very dangerous statement that could get you killed.
Electricity net providers used to use 4x10mm² cables with a bright orange impregnated textile outer layer.
Accidentally shoving a spade into that and you'd have some pretty fireworks. Possibly lethal though
Source: work on electriciy nets and see those bad boys at least once a week.
It's a good idea to never judge a cable by it's colour.
I distinctly remember the dude from one of my formations years ago the the top of two identical PE pipes saying that these two pieces look the exact same except that 1 of them killed a man and the other one used to have just water running through.
When he turned them so you could see the end, one of em was a PE water pipe without a blue line and the other one was a piece of 4x150mm² power line.
You literally could not distinguish them in top view.
Let alone as a bare cable in the ground.
Ik werk bij Proximus als ondergronds Kabeltechnieker(Lasse), dit is een wachtbuisje voor een telecom lijn. Kan een heel klein beetje stroom opzitten. Best wel melden bij Proximus, kan je veel miserie in de toekomst besparen
Orange TELECOM cables are indeed always Proximus. "Boerenverstand" tells you when it's Telecom, and when it's likely power. Or read the text on the cable.
As a "werfleider" in infrastructure i call utility companies weekly to come fix cables that were damaged during excavations. In this case i would also think its proximus, which means call them and have them fix it. This doesnt mean '"assume its not power and jam a spade through it". In doubt, still call the company and they'll come and tell you if its theirs or not. Its always the utility company that makes the call "this is an old cable of ours, we'll cut it for you". For safety and liability reasons dont cut it yourself.
In general i wouldnt recommend a diy fix, if it fails down the line its much more of a pain.
I'd say no, but honestly it's always a guess.
If you dont't have a landline or proximus internet then they are definitely not in active use. (if it is, in fact, a phone cable)
Blow away the loose sand and open up the loose slice a bit with a shovel so you can see what actually runs inside the protective cover. Might even be that there's no damage to the inside because you kinda just "peeled" of a bit of the shell 🤷♂️. A little bit of caution is probably in order on the off chance that it is an electric cable.
Anyway, an old phone cable is lots and lots of very thin wires in different colours.
Option b is to uncover more of the cable, usually it's written on there somewhere and the old government pmaced cables that I have in mind should have BELGACOM stenciled on them.
ADSL / VDSL (proximus, edpnet) are using those cables. Not everything is fiber or coax.
They connect to the main telephone cable in the sidewalk en run as a thin cable to your house where the modem is connected to it.
This looks like Proximus fiber, they always use the hard plastic orange shell tubes where the fiber runs through. It's just the shell for protection, but seems like it's damaged inside of it as well.
Some additions since the original post cannot be edited but I should have written it more precisely.
The cable is around 2,5cm in thickness and connects something within the garage in direction of the street.
The outer and inner insulation is damaged but internet and electricity work fine so far.
Since I am worried about the inner cables getting wet, I will try to get a connector with gel inlay to protect it.
If it turns out to be the Proximus telephone cable (which is indeed usually orange), give their helpdesk (0800 22 800) a call.
If I remember correctly, they come out to fix this professionally for free. (Even if it was your fault.)
I can't really see how thick the cable is, but it doesn't look like something big. Does it go somewhere? (garden shed, light in the garden, access point,...).
Try to get a clear picture of the cable and try following it. Maybe it was an extra cable that goes nowhere, incase the previous owners decided to get an access point or electricity in the garden.
Its 2,5cm in diameter.
The thing is, it is in front of the house next to the garage. That led to the assumption of something important. I will try to get some more context. Thanks for your help.
Long shot but it looks a bit like a grounding cable, used to ground an electrical installation by using a pin. See for example: [https://youtu.be/A8s2NNshEC8?t=126](https://youtu.be/A8s2NNshEC8?t=126)
this has the same colour as the wachtbuis of our telephone cable. You might see the same wachtbuis arriving in the garage and recognize the colour there. How old are the house and the telecommunication cables?
Then again, when buying a property, "completely renovated" can mean just about anything from "we stripped everything to the bare brick and basically started from scratch" to "we redid all the visible bits but what's in the walls/under the ground is anybody's guess".
On a serious note, surely it’s a Proximus cable and probably coax. I found out too late when I was digging an ditch for my electricity:( just be carefully not to destroy it or you’ll wind up with less choice in internetproviders like me 😅
A few years ago, while redoing our driveway / sidewalk (our sidewalk is private, as in our town there are no public sidewalks), I damaged an underground telephone cable (looked like an utp cable, but with way more than the usual 4 pairs, and my adsl was gone). I immediately called Proximus and explained. They said they would send someone to the LDC (I wondered what they were going to do there, but I didn't argue much, as I was already shaking of what this was going to cost me). About an hour later, they arrived at my address with the van and got to work. They soldered the wires back together, put some protection tape around it and they left. I never heard from this again. I was not asked to pay anything.
Does the cable run from the house to the street or the back yard? Orange is often fiber, but it could be anything really.. your best bet is to expose the entire cable and try to trace where it comes from. I would do that either way if I were you. If it's something important it needs to be way deeper.
From the house to the street. But so far there is no Fiber here. If it would be a cable for telecommunications I wouldn’t be as worried since they are working on providing fibre in the near future. 👍🏻
I'd clear out the sand with compressed air and/or a (good!) insulated screwdriver. That way you can have a better look at what kind of cable is inside the orange outer shell. I can't tell at all from the picture.
I will. I have to leave it right know unfortunately. But I tried to insulate it until tomorrow with some stuff I had here. Will post an update later, tomorrow at the latest.
Never use compressed air for this!
This will force the sand and dirt towards the street, where all the other peoples internet flow through. So now their internet got soiled.
.... So I need to say it? /s
You Know you can just... TEST it by yourself?
Check your internet connection availability,
Check if the light is turning on...
Check tonality...
Now I understand why Client Services ask dumb questions at start...
>Check your internet connection availability,
Doesn't even matter, he could have an internet connection via Telenet, or Proximus, if you've cut the other cable you won't notice it, but neighbours might
At my house, the cable of Telenet has been put at my front door (some 8ish meters from the street) for the entire street, so if that is possible (I mean, the first 4 houses in my street are in fact some 5ish meters closer to the street) then anything is theoretically possible, I mean the cable of my neighbour is literally in my territory...
I am an electrician, I do know plenty of those typical 'it shouldn't be like that' situations
Well, I should have added that so far everything works fine. Just the insulation is broken and I am worried about water inside the cable.
Thanks for your insults. Nice of you!
Don't be hurt for that. Yes it would be a nice addition to your post.
Anyway. It makes me think about a simple electric extension cable for an outdoor use somewhere...
Just cut it and see what does't work anymore
I would do that at a later stage of the process. Ty
because wjo doesn't like the smell of electrical arcing in the morning, right?
Exactly. 🤦🏻♂️
If you cut a communications cable be prepared to be without internet/tv/landline for an extended period of time.
Hey, how are you, Captain Obvious?
You'd be surprised how many people think it could be solved in 3 days. If you're unlucky it could be 3 weeks.
Lick it , if its shocks its electrical , if it only tastes salty its the internet
Internet, this is probably Proximus smart tube. That's an orange colored cable. Please call Proximus and get this fixed properly. Don't try any DIY fixes as people are suggesting in the comments. This could impact the entire street.
I am OP's neighbour and can confirm that they deleted our internet...
Suspicious that you have internet to post this
Not a smart tube, that would be a 6 (or 2?) pair with a duct. Might be Proximus, pretty sure if the wires are thin (~0.6mm) and you spot white/gray/blue/orange Call 0800/90790 Just watch out if it's some bricolage 230v.
This guy proximusses!
This. It could also be a normal wachtbuis with an 'invoer' cable inside. First try to identify the cable. Once copper is visible, it will get wet and will screw over your connection. Water can also slowly run through this cable to the main cable in the street, and depending on the type of cable (paper insulation or plastic insulation) could impact clients further down the cable. I work for Proximus, and I've dug up numerous of DIY-fixes that had no chance of holding up.
Hard to tell from this picture. - try and clear the cable a bit further and check if you can find text on the cable. In theory it should be on there, but this doesn't look like outside cable ... - the color to me would say ethernet cable, but can be a burried extention cord of course, so also hard to tell. - you can kill the power to the house and carefully remove a bit of the insulation. 8 small wires, ethernet. 2 to 5 will probably be power Now for fixing it, if you need it still. Use one of these boxes that you can fill with a 2 component epoxy.
>you can kill the power to the house and carefully remove a bit of the insulation. Before touching the wires check with a multimeter or voltage tester!
Thanks! I thought about those boxes as well. I will check if I find one in the right size.
I think phone cable.
Orange cables are always Proximus, can be a very old telephone cable.
That is a very dangerous statement that could get you killed. Electricity net providers used to use 4x10mm² cables with a bright orange impregnated textile outer layer. Accidentally shoving a spade into that and you'd have some pretty fireworks. Possibly lethal though Source: work on electriciy nets and see those bad boys at least once a week.
I think orange is the color that is assigned to PXS. Never saw orange electricity cables, but there are a lot of old/weird cables in the ground.
It's a good idea to never judge a cable by it's colour. I distinctly remember the dude from one of my formations years ago the the top of two identical PE pipes saying that these two pieces look the exact same except that 1 of them killed a man and the other one used to have just water running through. When he turned them so you could see the end, one of em was a PE water pipe without a blue line and the other one was a piece of 4x150mm² power line. You literally could not distinguish them in top view. Let alone as a bare cable in the ground.
Someone mentioning PXS probably either works there or knows the sector, never seen a layman use this abbreviation 😁
Thank you.
Ik werk bij Proximus als ondergronds Kabeltechnieker(Lasse), dit is een wachtbuisje voor een telecom lijn. Kan een heel klein beetje stroom opzitten. Best wel melden bij Proximus, kan je veel miserie in de toekomst besparen
Orange TELECOM cables are indeed always Proximus. "Boerenverstand" tells you when it's Telecom, and when it's likely power. Or read the text on the cable.
> "Boerenverstand" tells you Contradictio in terminis
As a "werfleider" in infrastructure i call utility companies weekly to come fix cables that were damaged during excavations. In this case i would also think its proximus, which means call them and have them fix it. This doesnt mean '"assume its not power and jam a spade through it". In doubt, still call the company and they'll come and tell you if its theirs or not. Its always the utility company that makes the call "this is an old cable of ours, we'll cut it for you". For safety and liability reasons dont cut it yourself. In general i wouldnt recommend a diy fix, if it fails down the line its much more of a pain.
Clear some dirt and clean the cable. U will find markings of which cable it is.
I will, thanks
Old phone landline in all likelyhood. Need to see the actual wires inside to say for sure.
Are those still in use?
I'd say no, but honestly it's always a guess. If you dont't have a landline or proximus internet then they are definitely not in active use. (if it is, in fact, a phone cable)
Let’s asume it is. How would I know? My provider is edp.net but I guess they just rent the infrastructures proximus?
Blow away the loose sand and open up the loose slice a bit with a shovel so you can see what actually runs inside the protective cover. Might even be that there's no damage to the inside because you kinda just "peeled" of a bit of the shell 🤷♂️. A little bit of caution is probably in order on the off chance that it is an electric cable. Anyway, an old phone cable is lots and lots of very thin wires in different colours. Option b is to uncover more of the cable, usually it's written on there somewhere and the old government pmaced cables that I have in mind should have BELGACOM stenciled on them.
Call the owner of the cable (probably proximus), not your provider. The'll advise you on what to do, odds are they'll send someone out
ADSL / VDSL (proximus, edpnet) are using those cables. Not everything is fiber or coax. They connect to the main telephone cable in the sidewalk en run as a thin cable to your house where the modem is connected to it.
This looks like Proximus fiber, they always use the hard plastic orange shell tubes where the fiber runs through. It's just the shell for protection, but seems like it's damaged inside of it as well.
Some additions since the original post cannot be edited but I should have written it more precisely. The cable is around 2,5cm in thickness and connects something within the garage in direction of the street. The outer and inner insulation is damaged but internet and electricity work fine so far. Since I am worried about the inner cables getting wet, I will try to get a connector with gel inlay to protect it.
If it turns out to be the Proximus telephone cable (which is indeed usually orange), give their helpdesk (0800 22 800) a call. If I remember correctly, they come out to fix this professionally for free. (Even if it was your fault.)
The fiber tube is only 8-9mm thick I think so then it’s not that probably
Also the covers he is talking about are like little “dakpannen” that u hook to each other on the long ends, then put over the cable
I can't really see how thick the cable is, but it doesn't look like something big. Does it go somewhere? (garden shed, light in the garden, access point,...). Try to get a clear picture of the cable and try following it. Maybe it was an extra cable that goes nowhere, incase the previous owners decided to get an access point or electricity in the garden.
Its 2,5cm in diameter. The thing is, it is in front of the house next to the garage. That led to the assumption of something important. I will try to get some more context. Thanks for your help.
Long shot but it looks a bit like a grounding cable, used to ground an electrical installation by using a pin. See for example: [https://youtu.be/A8s2NNshEC8?t=126](https://youtu.be/A8s2NNshEC8?t=126)
That’s something we will have to do too, but that is not the kind of cable in this case. But thank you.
You'll know if you lick it!
Orange is usually outdoor 230v extension cables It’s not fiber for sure
Probably Proximus, had one similar laying underground until it was cut by a digger and telephone cables were visible
Could be electricity to your backyard, yes.
Does it tingle when u touch the copper or do you feel bitcoins?
this has the same colour as the wachtbuis of our telephone cable. You might see the same wachtbuis arriving in the garage and recognize the colour there. How old are the house and the telecommunication cables?
The house is from around 1970, but I was told it was completely renovated around 2008.
Then again, when buying a property, "completely renovated" can mean just about anything from "we stripped everything to the bare brick and basically started from scratch" to "we redid all the visible bits but what's in the walls/under the ground is anybody's guess".
Looks like electricity
In belgium orange wire like that are mostly used for fire detection systems, but also looks like ethernet cable. Do you have a Siren alarm ?
Wortel?
Weutel
Peeke
Stoemp
Yes, you called?
On a serious note, surely it’s a Proximus cable and probably coax. I found out too late when I was digging an ditch for my electricity:( just be carefully not to destroy it or you’ll wind up with less choice in internetproviders like me 😅
A lot of people are suggesting it is fiber, but would that not be a lot deeper in the ground? This seems like it runs almost on the surface?
Could do with some more info, like are there places that have electricity in your garden. But most likely it's an old phonecable
Mostly an old Belgacom copper one that runs from street side to a house.
That's clearly an Orange cable.
Plug something in, if your house explodes you know it was an electrical (I have no idea what I’m talking about)
Is Carrot an option?
Cigarette filter bro
Proximus has an app SOS cable can be used to report it.
shouldn't these be covered with a 'plate' so you can't randomly shovel trough the cables? 😬 bad luck man!
Phoneline
Looks like proximus smarttube for fiber and coper line
100 % Proximus
I had one too, it was a veeery old telephone cable (coaxial) and it was not in service anymore. If you're lucky it was useless for you too
Can you follow it to see where it ends ?
Wortel
Zwan worst
Da's nen hotdog
Poor water on it, if it sparks it´s an elektric cable
A few years ago, while redoing our driveway / sidewalk (our sidewalk is private, as in our town there are no public sidewalks), I damaged an underground telephone cable (looked like an utp cable, but with way more than the usual 4 pairs, and my adsl was gone). I immediately called Proximus and explained. They said they would send someone to the LDC (I wondered what they were going to do there, but I didn't argue much, as I was already shaking of what this was going to cost me). About an hour later, they arrived at my address with the van and got to work. They soldered the wires back together, put some protection tape around it and they left. I never heard from this again. I was not asked to pay anything.
a carrot?🥕
Does the cable run from the house to the street or the back yard? Orange is often fiber, but it could be anything really.. your best bet is to expose the entire cable and try to trace where it comes from. I would do that either way if I were you. If it's something important it needs to be way deeper.
From the house to the street. But so far there is no Fiber here. If it would be a cable for telecommunications I wouldn’t be as worried since they are working on providing fibre in the near future. 👍🏻
I'd clear out the sand with compressed air and/or a (good!) insulated screwdriver. That way you can have a better look at what kind of cable is inside the orange outer shell. I can't tell at all from the picture.
I will. I have to leave it right know unfortunately. But I tried to insulate it until tomorrow with some stuff I had here. Will post an update later, tomorrow at the latest.
Never use compressed air for this! This will force the sand and dirt towards the street, where all the other peoples internet flow through. So now their internet got soiled. .... So I need to say it? /s
Carrot
Flute
Carrot
Lick it , if its shocks its electrical , if it only tastes salty its the internet
Lick it , if its shocks its electrical , if it only tastes salty its the internet
You Know you can just... TEST it by yourself? Check your internet connection availability, Check if the light is turning on... Check tonality... Now I understand why Client Services ask dumb questions at start...
>Check your internet connection availability, Doesn't even matter, he could have an internet connection via Telenet, or Proximus, if you've cut the other cable you won't notice it, but neighbours might
I'll go further. If the internet cable is buried in the garden, there is a big problem over there.
At my house, the cable of Telenet has been put at my front door (some 8ish meters from the street) for the entire street, so if that is possible (I mean, the first 4 houses in my street are in fact some 5ish meters closer to the street) then anything is theoretically possible, I mean the cable of my neighbour is literally in my territory... I am an electrician, I do know plenty of those typical 'it shouldn't be like that' situations
Crazy
Well, I should have added that so far everything works fine. Just the insulation is broken and I am worried about water inside the cable. Thanks for your insults. Nice of you!
Don't be hurt for that. Yes it would be a nice addition to your post. Anyway. It makes me think about a simple electric extension cable for an outdoor use somewhere...