Outside of built up areas what is wrong with poles. I appreciate the wires or fibre version can be damaged by wind,thieves ,branches etc but by putting them in ducts under the road which openreach are doing for many sections it seems that the communication industry is increasing its reliability at the expense of those that use the roads. This road I use regularly is an example, used to have a pole run but now at regular intervals you have some closely spaced man holes like this set.
In some places they are already sinking and the road breaking up around them so the journey on what was once a reasonable road is now thump thump thump every few hundred yards. And when they do need attention Murphy and his mates have to set up the set of traffic lights for a couple of days and hinder everyone whereas one time a man or two in yellow or earlier a green vans quickly stuck a ladder up the pole and got it done fairly quickly.
Oh and on such country roads you could get an indication of how sharp bends in the distance were by watching the line of poles though I accept that would be an unintentional fringe benefit.
GH