Refuseniks chop down broadband poles in Hull

[Andrew]

Oh dear. I knew that Hull was a bit different telephonically compared to everywhere else, but this seems a bit drastic.

Andrew

[Tim+]

To be fair to them it looks like the fibre installation is being done “on the cheap” with wooden poles in the streets which don’t look like they’ve had overhead wires before. I’d be a bit annoyed about a change from buried services to overhead ones.

In my neck of the woods where there haven’t been overhead wires, cable ducts have been installed in the pavements. Where connections were previously overhead, they’re substituting fibre for wire.

Tim

[GB]

It's odd how it works round here. Some roads have buried telephone cables, and some have overhead cables. It seems to be arbitrary.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It is all historical. All new shit is underground. Legacy is above. My intsallation is all underground till it gets to my house...then its up a pole to cross the road.

[Theo]

I wonder if there's something different in the way operators get access to KCOM ducts rather than BT/Openreach ones.

In the last pic there's a new pole which appears to be right next to an existing pole (with wires) and they are the same height.

It looks like the area has a lot of existing poles, at least in the older-looking parts.

Sometimes tall poles need to be installed because the existing ones don't offer enough clearance to cross the carriageway - eg if you have a bungalow close to the pavement, the wire will terminate at a height of about 2.5m, which is not enough to get a lorry under. Hence they have to install a tall pole on the other side with a steeply sloping wire so the part of the wire over the road is of sufficient height.

Theo

[Joe]

There are still a couple of parts of a London borough with overhead power cables.

[Robin]

Ofcom decided in 2021 not to require KCOM to give competitors access to its ducts.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its all overhead power cables round here except where we paid to have them put underground

[Andrew]

A quick check with google suggests that plonking a pole on an exsting open plan estate where all services are underground could be the default option for the competitors, as this article from Surrey shows

and this

[Owain Lastname]

Where I (used to) live all the phones were ducted underground, but they had to put a pole in because the duct was damaged and 'back feed' the fibre from the wrong end of the street.

Now of course my building is cordoned off (see thread about RAAC) so they can't connect anything up anyway.

Owain

[Theo]

That would explain why they're installing new poles in Hull, if they're not allowed to use the KCOM ones.

Theo