worldwidewebs Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Mods - please move this thread if it's in the wrong area Thinking ahead a little, we will need a new BT connection. There is a pole directly across the road which has overhead lines running to the neighbours' houses so I'm assuming that I too would also have to have an overhead line. I don't really want this if I can avoid it as I want to bring the line into our ground floor plant room via a duct through the slab and I don't want to drop a cable down the face of the house to be able to do that. There isn't any decent information out there that I've found so does anyone know of any general principles or maybe give a view as to what is likely to be possible (or not)? Given that the pole is on the other side of the road, I'm guessing my options might need ££££... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 How are your other services coming onto your plot? do any of them require digging up the road? All our services come from the other side of the road to us (in the grass verge) so I managed to get away with paying for the road up only once, and laying in the water on that visit plus ducts to take electrcity and telephone cables. You need to talk to Open Reach to see what they advise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey_1980 Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 If you haven't got any other services coming in under the road but want BT to come in that way you could go fot Trenchless moling, the open reach engineer will be more than happy to drop his cable through the duct if he was able to find one easily enough, it will cost around £7-800 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 But will Open Reach charge you for that? When I met the Open Reach man, I was told there is a "budget" of a little over £3000 for each new connection, and you were only charged if it went above that. I don't expect to be paying anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey_1980 Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 I am in the process of sorting it myself as he said the planning for anything like that can take 4-6 months or longer and we can't wait that long, so it will either be coming under the road in a duct or straight across to the electric pole and then in through a duct depending if we get Highways clearance for the trenchless moling this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 We have the same dilemma, current BT comes overheard off pole on opposite side of lane, we redirected the old house connection to the site office prior to demolition (that was a saga in itself). At that time, I asked the OR engineer whether, when it came to new house reconnection time, would they pull through a duct if one were to appear next to the pole. He said that it would be no issue, but it would need to be right next to the pole. While doing the groundworks, we had grey BT duct run from above the basement plant room to the perimeter of the property opposite the pole with a draw string. We've also put in provision for roof level BT termination. Now that we're getting the final groundworks quoted, we've asked for a price to go across the road to the pole. Only issue is that it is in the neighbour's verge - one who has never spoken to us in 5 years, it's in-front of his fence but surrounded by hedging that he maintains, so not clear whether we can dig up next to the pole without his permission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 If there is a pole on his land there will be a way leave in place normally - if he's the sort of person you describe then I guarantee he will have insisted on one..!! If it's in front of the fence then regardless of him cutting the hedge it may well be in the council verge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I'm in the process of having an underground Openreach connection. The pole is on the other side of the road and when the Openreach engineer came out for the survey I asked him if they would impact mole under the road, as it's a 4m single track lane. He said no because because it would cost too much. I asked if I paid and had the duct moled would that be acceptable but he said no because Openreach are responsible for their ducting and therefore they would have to install it. So I'm stuck with them digging up my new kerbs and fencing etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey_1980 Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I think it is luck of the draw who you get the engineer that cane out to us said if a duct appeared on his next visit he would have no issues pulling the cable through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 3 minutes ago, PeterStarck said: I'm in the process of having an underground Openreach connection. The pole is on the other side of the road and when the Openreach engineer came out for the survey I asked him if they would impact mole under the road, as it's a 4m single track lane. He said no because because it would cost too much. I asked if I paid and had the duct moled would that be acceptable but he said no because Openreach are responsible for their ducting and therefore they would have to install it. So I'm stuck with them digging up my new kerbs and fencing etc. That's a contrast to our local Openreach chap who just dropped off loads of their Duct 56, bends, two cast iron boxes and a roll of cable and was happy for our ground works chap to just lay all the duct and put their new cable in, leaving it coiled up at either end. It seems it really is just pot luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I found them frankly very unhelpful. All the guy really said is "here's a drum of cable" and all he wanted was the cable from my house to the road verge where their trunk cable runs. It was up to me to get it there, which I did when the road was up for the other services. Our OR rep wouldn't even give us any ducting. The excuse being "my van is too small to fit it" (it was a tiny van) and all he could offer was I could make a 50 mile round trip myself to go and collect some. Well I had a length of black electrical duct that had been out in the sun for many years and gone grey, so I used that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Wouldn't it be nice if the same company was consistent? We found Openreach to be a complete PITA to deal with at their main office, but the local engineer was great, a really helpful chap who made up for his bosses being so damned useless. I think Openreach really just don't care too much. They have an effective monopoly and so don't have to be the slightest bit concerned about customer service, especially as builders are not, to them, customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey_1980 Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Completely agree Openreach have been a nightmare to try and have any conversations with, there was a thread on the ild site about submitting a questionnaire response to registeter your site I did all that and chased constantly for 3 months to try and speak to someone but zero help, in the end I gave up as there were more pressing issues, as we are near the end of the build I phoned BT, gave them the new address and said it won't be on any systems, I got the computer says no response but then he passed me over to his team leader and BT couldn't have been more helpful they doctored the systems to get me an install, openreach were out within 7 days to discuss the options and are coming back this week to either run it in a duct under the road if Highways say yes or go to the pole currently next to the house down the pole and in through the ducts that I have laid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 (edited) Our nearest pole was about 20 yards down the road. My builder ran a cable underground to the bottom of the pole and Openreach happily connected it up once they got organised. We left enough cable in a coil at the bottom to reach the top with some spare. The main problem was Openreach disorganisation. Someone from BT/Openreach rang me once a week to tell me that they were "working on our connection" and that went on for a long time. Then one week they stopped calling. I rang them and the lady I spoke to insisted that the work had been done, which it clearly hadn't as I could still see the coil of wire. She was so convinced that the computer was right that the only solution was to agree with her that it must be faulty. The poor old fault engineer that arrived insisted on testing my line at the master socket before he would listen to me. Once he understood what the real problem was he made a few calls and things got sorted very quick. PS: I don't think we made BT/Openreach aware in advance that we would be putting in an underground cable to the pole. I think we just ordered a new connection that they were probably expecting to be an overhead. The engineers were happy to have an easier job than they were expecting. Edited June 13, 2016 by Temp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey_1980 Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 One thing I am now concerned about after looking is can the cable run straight from the pole and in through a duct, I have seen load of stuff online now about external terminations and coming through a wall directly opposite, in my last house it came straight in through the loft and a master socket located up there, in the new house I have laid a duct with a drawstring into the hallway and there is no external wall any where near! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Openreach have, according to my local engineer, changed their policy. The originally allowed cables direct in to the house to the master socket. They then changed this for new builds and insisted that a BT66A weatherproof box be fitted to an external wall and they would terminate the incoming cable there. This rule was in place when we started, so I fitted a BT66A to our meter fence, with grey 56mm ducts and hockey sticks running from there out to the new cast iron box by the new pole and under our slab and into the house (to avoid messing up the airtightness and vapour barrier by going through the wall) . I ran a length of gel cable through the duct from the house to the BT66A outside and then sealed the inside of the duct up to maintain airtightness. When the Openreach chap came to connect he said the rules had changed again and I could have run the length of gel cable through a single duct and coiled it up at the base of the pole.................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Yet another example of how different parts of OR have different rules. Up here they still use SWA phone cable and that's what we have. One continuous length that starts under the floor in the house, under our garden, under the road and ends where it will terminate to the trunk cable in the verge. The only bit in ducting is under the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 (edited) Our duct comes up through the slab and they are happy with that. They supplied the hockey sticks, ducting and a lot of drawcord and told me originally that they would mole under the road, but that was six years ago! Edited June 13, 2016 by PeterStarck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Openreach have (so far) been great on mybuild. I filled out the form via Openreach New Sites, had my acknowledgement within a day giving the local guy's contact number. The local chap told me where my connection would be made and asked me to call back a week or so before the digger was due on site. I did so, he came out the following day, and marked the position of the cable I would be connecting to. He came back out the day the digger started with some split ducts to put around the cable that runs across my driveway entrance, and left me a roll of SWA cable to run into the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldwidewebs Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 I so wish there was another option... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldwidewebs Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 Is this the right link to start the process off (Openreach), or do you initiate it through BT first? https://www.formwize.com/run/survey3.cfm?idx=505d04010e0f00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Some people have had the luck of just ringing BT and asking for a new line - straight in with no issues as long as you've got a proper PAF address with Royal Mail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 On 6/13/2016 at 15:45, JSHarris said: Openreach have, according to my local engineer, changed their policy. The originally allowed cables direct in to the house to the master socket. They then changed this for new builds and insisted that a BT66A weatherproof box be fitted to an external wall and they would terminate the incoming cable there. This rule was in place when we started, so I fitted a BT66A to our meter fence, with grey 56mm ducts and hockey sticks running from there out to the new cast iron box by the new pole and under our slab and into the house (to avoid messing up the airtightness and vapour barrier by going through the wall) . I ran a length of gel cable through the duct from the house to the BT66A outside and then sealed the inside of the duct up to maintain airtightness. When the Openreach chap came to connect he said the rules had changed again and I could have run the length of gel cable through a single duct and coiled it up at the base of the pole.................................... As an update I've now had a third survey by Openreach and they have changed their mind yet again. They say, as Jeremy has stated, that cables can no longer enter the house directly through the slab. Even though I was given the materials and installations instructions in 2010 they will not let me use that ducting now. I'm looking into the possibility of using WiMax wireless broadband and not having an Openreach connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 Why don't you get them to connect it any old way with a bit of slack, eg say the connection is going in the attic bedroom. Let the massive thunderbulbs connect it and bugger off. Then yank it back out and fish it in through the duct / wherever. Simples. They are a bunch of awkward useless idiots, more so on the admin / logistical side than the guys on the ground, and were responsible for 99% of the problems we had when installing new business telephone systems. That included leaving solicitors and doctors surgeries without incoming calls / no connection ( when converting from analogue to ISDN etc ) at all for 24hours or more etc and really not caring about it. They're a bloody nightmare. Let them come, do their usual crap, and leave. Then you redo it your way. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 Fwiw I think you'd regret trying to go wireless. Have you tried to get a mobile signal in the new house yet and compared it to standing outside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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