When we built our new house 3 years ago, I had the electrician pull Cat7 and coax to most of the rooms in the house, since it would be way easier to do it before the drywall went up.  They initially resisted because they had never worked with Cat7 before.  I struck a deal with them where I bought the Cat7, they pulled it, and I terminated and tested it, and they were OK with that.  Everything lands in the basement at our telco demarc sits, and everything has been working perfectly since then.  The rack where everything lands is also tied to the house ground.  I might consider 5G as a backup to our terrestrial fiber option, but haven't gone there yet.

The local electric utility tests our UPSs for free roughly once a month ;)

Thank you
jms

On Tue, Dec 3, 2024 at 11:53 AM Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
As some may remember from earlier this year, my friend was buying a new
"semi-custom" home.  "Semi-custom" is a marketing term, meaning you get to
choose (pay more) pre-determined builder options. It is not custom
designed.

The home builder was not installing any wired broadband utilities in the
new neighborhood.  No cable coax, no telephone DSL, no fiber optic. The
only option was wireless, with a special deal with a specific 5G wireless
cellular provider.

Originally, the builder's sales agent (i.e. the people working in the
model home selling houses) said new homes didn't need (and would not have)
a wired "demarc" location and no ethernet or coax outlets. Not my house,
but I was surprised when I heard that. I like wired connections when
possible for any fixed devices, and WiFi only for mobile devices.

I visited his new house over the Thanksgiving Holiday.

The sales agent was partially wrong and partially correct. Never believe
the sales agent spiel.

The built house came with exactly FOUR wired ethernet outlets in the
living room and each bedroom/office (x2 Cat6 jacks each outlet). But no
wired DEMARC, no coax outlets, and no wired broadband utilities in the
neighhood. The wired ethernet jacks were needed because the wireless 5G
base station ended up in an upstairs bedroom window for signal strength
reasons. The in-house wired ethernet was needed for a WiFi extender in
the living room.

I wouldn't be happy, but it seems to work for his family. The 5G deal was
cheaper than what he was paying at his old house.

According to the real estate realtor, not the builder's sales agent,
broadband is now in the top three things home buyers want to know. Some
states require the realtor MLS to disclose broadband access in the home
listings. Broadband access disclosure not required in this state.