Today, Friday April 12th, reports that Old Park Lane had anti Openreach poll protesters parking part pavement / part road on both sides to deter any attempts to install telegraph poles to deliver FTTP (fibre to the property).

The main argument from protesters is that underground ducts should be used and not poles.

In a response to a resident this reply by Openreach has been published publically on local social media.

Thank you for your email and hope you are well.

First and foremost, I want to stress that we do understand why you feel anxious or disappointed about new poles appearing in your neighbourhood.

We know that new poles can have a visual impact and we understand that some people feel this outweighs the benefits of the upgraded digital infrastructure we’re delivering, but I want to explain our position.

Our Roll Out

Southport‘s a challenging area to serve and upgrade because of how the network was built historically.

There are virtually no existing underground ducts or telephone poles in the area because the existing cables, which were installed decades ago, were mostly buried directly in the ground.

This not only makes the network harder to upgrade, but it also makes it far less reliable because it’s more prone to damage. As a result, the network in Southport is also much harder to repair when things go wrong, which they do increasingly on an ageing copper service.

Upgrading Southport to faster, more reliable Full Fibre broadband without the use of poles would involve a massive amount of civil engineering and many weeks of roadworks and disruption. Ultimately it would not be viable, whereas using poles will enable the build to be completed in less than half of the time.

Whenever we plan to deliver new services, we always try to use our existing network of underground ducts and telephone poles first as it’s the most extensive network of its kind in the UK. That means, in the vast majority of cases, we can usually avoid road closures and erecting new poles but this is not always the case.

I think it’s important to clarify that the use of poles to deploy network, be that fibre or copper is still a method widely used by network providers where the use of ducts isn’t possible for one reason or another. It’s not an inferior or substandard way of supplying service and has several advantages over ducting specifically around the speed that these can be installed and is generally more cost effective.

That said, we’ve not taken the decision to use poles lightly. We’re also working hard to minimise the visual impact of new poles wherever we can, by positioning them close to Southport’s existing lampposts, street furniture and trees.

Our Position and Next Steps

As you’ll no doubt be aware, we’ve already installed the first few poles in Southport and residents in those areas will soon be able to place an order full fibre broadband.
I understand why you may not agree with our decision to proceed, but I hope this response has given you some insight into why we think it’s the right thing to do. I know yourself and some residents do feel strongly about the poles and our roll out and I’m sorry to send what I realise is a disappointing response. But we’ve now taken all the steps we can to investigate, and, on this occasion, we still plan to proceed with the planned works and we do consider the matter closed.

If you do have any further questions for me then please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thanks,
Ethan Evans
IS Executive Complaints and Escalations team