UK minister tells telcos to share telegraph poles if they can't lay cable underground
- Reference: 1710491595
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/15/uk_gov_telegraph_poles/
- Source link:
Minister Julia Lopez at the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) has written to operators including Virgin Media O2, Openreach, and KCOM, asking them to do "everything possible" to share existing telegraph poles before deciding to install new ones.
While telegraph poles are recognized as being crucial to bring faster and cheaper connectivity to people across the UK, the minister thinks new infrastructure should only be built above ground when sharing existing infrastructure or installing lines underground is "not viable."
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This seems fair enough, but the text of the letter to the operators reveals what the real beef is: complaints to MPs from residents angry about the installation of new broadband infrastructure.
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"A number of MPs have brought to my attention the frustrations of communities they represent over the duplication of overhead fiber networks," it states. "They have advised that their constituents feel they have no control over how infrastructure is deployed in their local area, and this can negatively affect the overall perception of full fibre deployment."
These concerns are most prominent in "a small number of areas in England," the letter by Lopez states, tellingly.
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But seriously, are telcos really still deploying telegraph poles in this day and age? It would appear so. An [5]FAQ on the website of Freedom Fibre states: "Using telegraph poles as opposed to laying cables underground is much quicker, more affordable, less disruptive, and considerably better for the environment."
"On a recent project, a staggering 2,400 kg of carbon was saved by installing telegraph poles as opposed to digging up roads and paths to lay the cable underground."
The DSIT letter goes on to say that the government is "committed to ensuring there is a competitive broadband market so that everyone can receive the connectivity they need at an affordable price," and that it has pledged to ensure gigabit-capable connections are available to 85 percent of UK premises by 2025 and 99 percent of premises by 2030.
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Lopez says that telegraph poles are important for delivering efficient and cost-effective coverage to communities, as they enable broadband deployment without costly and disruptive roadworks.
[7]Virgin Media to stand up rival network operator to BT Openreach
[8]Zen Internet warns customers of an impending IP address change
[9]BT to spell out contract price hikes in pounds and pence
[10]Next BT CEO Allison Kirkby takes the wheel from next month
But, she adds, in light of "increasing public concern," it is more important than ever for telcos to ensure they do everything possible to explore the possibility of sharing existing infrastructure and use below-ground network deployment before erecting additional poles.
"New telegraph poles should only be in cases where installing lines underground is not reasonably practicable, and only after ensuring that appropriate community engagement has taken place and that the siting of new infrastructure will not cause obstructions to traffic or unduly impact the visual amenity of the local area," Lopez instructs.
DSIT is considering revisions to the existing Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice. The intention is to develop a refreshed set of guidelines to ensure that communities "feel engaged" in the deployment of new broadband infrastructure, and still allow operators to deploy networks.
So does this mean that telecoms companies are going to have to get the approval of the NIMBYs before deploying infrastructure, regardless of commitments to connect as many people as possible? Well, it is an election year so MPs are perhaps more sensitive than they might otherwise be to the complaints of constituents.
We also note previous reports of an uptick in [11]attacks on telecoms infrastructure , with a group of network providers calling on the UK government this week to help protect fiber-optic networks.
The letter "highlights the tricky balance between building out telecom infrastructure to improve connectivity and preserving the aesthetics of a particular area or community," said CCS Insight director of Consumer and Connectivity Kester Mann.
"Sharing infrastructure – particularly in rural areas – can minimize its impact on the eye, whilst also avoiding duplicate costs for the industry," he added. ®
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[5] https://www.freedomfibre.com/faq-poles
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfQqSBEIf6kVi0iAxoMoeQAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/19/virgin_media_product_to_rival_openreach/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/31/zen_internet/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/bt_price_hike_change/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/next_bt_ceo_allison_kirkby/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/12/uk_network_operators_want_government/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: They do.
That sounds much better than around here, where CityFibre have recently been along my street adding a new pole 5ft away from each BT pole. Most of the BT poles only appear to have a handful of cables on them.
So in our street we can choose between BT fibre and CityFibre each using a separate set of poles or virgin fibre from underground.
A relative of mine suffered almost a year's delay in the installation of fibre because one of the small number of telegraph poles involved was deemed "unsafe" during the site survey: unsafe to climb, but not sufficiently unsafe to warrant an immediate replacement. Most of the year was occupied in various groups sending memos to each other and instructing contractors who never turned up. Eventually, someone decided the pole wasn't as unsafe as it had at first appeared. I can't help feeling that in the absence of local full-time staff who are familiar with the terrain and the infrastructure, wireless is the way to go for rural connectivity.
Got my "you want FTTP, you really do" email from Zen today, after OpenReach have been all up and down the poles around town for months, and I got to plug my phone into the router a few months ago (oh, the fun !).
The cheapest package is more expensive and slower than my current ADSL.
So screw that. What's the point ?
"The cheapest package is more expensive and slower than my current ADSL.
So screw that. What's the point ?"
Really?
How fast is your ADSL?
Ok - wow BT now do a ridiculously slow "full fibre essential", which is £29 for 36Mbps....
Why? £30 gets you 150Mbps, £33 is 300Mbps. And they still don't do anything symmetric.
Whereas alternative providers do £28 for 150Mbps symmetric, £32 for 500Mbps
Latency is usually far better on fibre, as is connection reliability. No significant affects of rain or wind.
I had the opposite problem...
Finally getting my new City Fibre link on Monday after a months delay. Here Cityfibre is in the paths unfortunately they have stuck the termination boxes at random points in front of the houses.
So instead of installing it in front of a gravel path which runs up to the front door (nice and easy), they put it in front of the lawn. The lawn is reinforced to allow a car to park on it and not sink, and in front of the house is a 1M wide section of concrete. It has taken a few weeks for them to move the box 6' to the left which they could have done when they did the installation.
My brother has also gone this route but they put his box next to the fence so had a nice short run to do the work..... Still worth it as Zen are charging £32 for 300Mb whereas EE want £38 for 60Mb
Wireless for rural areas
Definitely. We live up a big hill in rural Wales, where we've been for 26 years. Started off on dial-up, moved to ISDN (Home Highway, remember that?), then various generations of very slow ADSL. Although we were doing better than one of our literal neighbours in the next house along, a few hundred yards up the lane. We got about 6Mbps, they got 0.25Mbps at best, and long periods of no service at all. I did a bit of research, turns out the phone line came to us, then did a sharp left up another lane to a pair of houses about a miles away, then looped back to our neighbours another mile down a third lane. That house is still, years later, waiting on decent wires.
So we went wireless. First a local WISP, who kindly gave us free service in recognition of us hosting a pole in our yard to serve a bunch of other local properties, and then back in 2020 we added Starlink. So we now have two truly diversely routed services, speeds of around 250Mbps or so, and rock solid reliability.
Which is good, because we won't be seeing fibre out here within my lifetime, I'll wager.
GJC
atlnets running amok
I have seen the mess in the South Cambridgeshire village of Gamlingay as an alt-net set about installing new poles, much to the chagrin of the residents - especially for those where all other services are underground! It seems as if the planning departments are powerless to control the madness. Fibre at any cost! The contractors managed to damage the Openreach cabling, and that saw Openreach vans tailing the contractors, fixing all of the faults they caused. The upshot for some, was an improvement in their VDSL signals! That aside, no-one could see the reason for the altnet coming to the village. The VDSL coverage was already pretty good, and the village is scheduled for Openreach to roll-out fibre sooner than larger towns over the border in Bedfordshire. Some areas now have a nice new pole ready for fibre that no-one wants to bother with, as many are waiting for Openreach so they are not locked-in to the alt-net.
My home town of Biggleswade has seen Openreach install new poles near to their existing poles, and I assume they will offer to swap the existing drop-wires; and eventually, remove the old POTS poles. My area has copper underground, but it was buried in the dirt when the estate was built in the 1980s, so someone is going to have to come and dig things up to install new ducting - and I suspect that means cutting across the gardens! We had chaos in the small estate roads in the 90s when CableTel's contractors dug up the roads - and in my street, they managed to damage the 3-phase mains ... which required two more larger holes dug in the pavements to find the blown cable. I am eagerly waiting on fibre to the home, as the VDSL signal on the 40-year-old copper is now terrible; and I've had to have Openreach out 3 times in the past few years to replace the terminator head as it was full of water. However, I am wondering what level of chaos will be created when they start digging up the roads and pavements, and whether we will be left until last in the roll-out as being "too hard"!?
"a small number of areas in England,"
That may, of course, be the same "small number" affected by any mass outage, data breach or whatever.
They do.
UK minister tells telcos to share telegraph poles...
Where I live they already are.
Our local telco has wired me up using the existing BT pole as it was not possible to run a cable underground due to the congested sewers, gas mains and electricity cables that run under the small area where the houses are. In other places they have put the cables underground, causing a considerable amount of disruption on the roads. For example, why would anyone in their right mind start digging up the road in one of our most popular holiday towns in the middle of the season?
Having said that the local telco is about five years ahead of Openreach round here and will be finished long before BT gets round to doing anything other than making promises.