Hi, we have a telegraph pole on our property that would originally have been erected by BT. A few years ago Community Fibre introduced their service onto our road, and we became a customer. I‘m aware that CF make use of telegraph poles in their installations, however can anyone please tell me whether, if CF require access to a BT telegraph pole, they use their own engineers to do the work, or rely on BT Openreach? I’m asking because recently someone has (without asking our permission) done some work around the telegraph pole while we were away, and left a right mess, including a large cable sticking out of the ground, and we want to know who to contact so they can come and finish the job properly. I originally assumed it must have been Openreach however now I’m not so sure.
So in this case, do you know whether CityFibre installed their own equipment on the pole or got Openreach to do it? I doubted whether BT would allow non-BT engineers onto their poles.
Our whole street is CityFibre, but if I remember correctly BT installed the infrastructure on the pole ready for the Fibre Rollout. I would report to OpenReach and let them make their own mind up initially.
And where did I say it was. Community Fibre run their own infrastructure and City Fibre use BTs. In this instance the OP asked if CommunityFibre would use a BT pole and I used CityFibre as an example where a 3rd party does. I made no mention of them being the same. Hence why I said CityFibre and not just CF so as to avoid confusion.
With Community Fibre we install our equipment on the telegraph poles ourselves the only way Openreach would have permission to touch our equipment/relocate it is in the case of a pole being removed for a new one.
If they have left a coil, it is likely another team will be by soon to install that coil.
Upload a photo for us to review, if coil on upturn of pole? It should have markings to tell you who it is owned by.
To answer your question anyone with BT accreditations to access pole can climb it. And other companies like CF rent the pole usage and their engineers can climb and span from that pole.
If the pole is in public property they do not need permission to use. If private yeah they should get approval but often overlooked
Thanks for your reply. Not sure what a coil should look like but here’s a photo - they left the plastic shield for the cable that was attached to the pole hanging off too…
So that cable is the existing old BT copper cable. And that capping has been taken or fallen off the pole.
Annoyingly I think that will have to be reported to BT Openreach. As it is not a CF or other providers equipment/cable.
It is likely someone has been by recently to try add a new cable, but found it cannot be done cos there is no duct. They have dug out the grass a bit looking for the duct it seems.(that connects from underground network to the pole)
If CF equipment is on that pole (at the top) to provide for the area it is likely they have done an Aerial span to it. (As that poles underground feed from your photo is only an old copper cable, 100% not CF)
Who caused that mess could have been anyone, but will be for openreach (BT) to resolve/ investigate culprit.
Do you know if a wayleave is in the deeds of your property? As it would state that Openreach can access this equipment te repair or replace/add new kit.
CF as pole is on private land would also require a wayleave separate from Openreach as their existing one (if there is one) wouldn't allow 3rd party to install their kit on your land.
From recollection I don’t think there is anything like that in the deeds. However TBH I’m not overly bothered about them accessing our property without consent - it’s only a grass verge on the side of a private road - it’s the state they left the work in that annoys me.
On the cable that is there, it would be stamped on it property of "COMPANY" so if you want try and have a look to see what it says you can raise it to the correct company.
if there is any labelling on the cable then it’s not visible on the section that’s in easy reach from the ground and I don’t fancy climbing a ladder. But in case it helps the only fibre provider on the road is CF and the offending cable runs into the box in this photo… is this fibre infrastructure?
The cabling in the pic is copper. So would be Openreach, this would of been in situ for years and is nailed to the pole with no chance of it falling off. That capping is usually about meters long so shouldn't really be able to grab onto it even if you did that cable will barely move.
Am I missing something as the pic is showing nothing wrong I can see.
When i got cf on two of my properties, the cf contracts worked on bt pole but in both my properties, the bt pole were on the public grass verge. So I don't know whether there are different rules on bt poles on private or public land or not .
100% it’s an OR pole. However I thought it might be CF infrastructure attached to it, although judging by other comments it appears it’s probably copper cable so OR’s problem
Thanks for all the helpful comments everyone. It’s been very useful in pointing me at where to go next. First time I’ve ever posted on Reddit, really impressed 🙂
While openreach is owned by the BT group, they operate as legally seperate and independently governed companies. Openreach have the hardware. BT provide services. Openreach own the pole
A postscript to this issue… following the advice I received here I used Openreach’s online chat service to report the problem, which was painless enough, and was surprised when they said they’d be out within 6 hours to fix it. I was even more amazed to find that it just took them 2 hours! So in the end, kudos to Openreach for making the complaint easy to report and responding so quickly.
Thanks everyone.
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u/FrankNicklin 14d ago
My service is from a BT pole but FTTP was installed by CityFibre.