Move telephone line

[Lindricklad]

I live in a bungalow where the telephone line runs from a post in the road across the front garden to a chimney which provides support (with a short length of wire wrapped around the cable) and then from there a short run across the roof and behind the gutter - then down the wall to a small external 'box' from where it runs into the property.

I plan to have the chimney removed and obviously need to relocate the support for the telephone line. This could be achieved by providing a new support location (e.g. a short 'mast' attached directly to the wall) as there is sufficient slack in the cable to achieve that.

Would I be permitted to achieve that myself or am I forced to get BT/Openreach involved ? If so, what is likely to be their (considerable !) cost ?

 

[OwainDIYer]

Strictly speaking not permitted.

BT Openreach charge 105.60 + VAT for external shift.

Be warned that drop wires can be under some tension and can take your fingers off.

Dropwire Clamp "Curly Wurly" Pigtail No.10A and a Bracket 32

 

[bernardgreen]

Cables are terminated on terminal blocks or other means of electrical connection.

The video is describing how to DIY anchor a drop wire to a wall / post / etc.

If you DIY the anchoring of a drop wire ( or modify an existing drop wire anchor ) that crosses a road or other public right of way then you will be legally responsible for any harm, injury or damage that happens if your DIY anchor fails. Openreach and similar organisations have insurance specifically for that eventuality.

As already nentioned the drop wire is under tension. Not only can it damage fingers it can also pull a person backwards off a ladder

 

[Infidel]

You mentioned you live in a bugalow and its anchored to a chimney pot, one of the reasons might possibly be overhead clearance over your or neighbours gardens or indeed the road if it is a road crossing. Think about the structural stability of your chimney and then try to reproduce that with a pole, the wind loading on a span of dropwire (although it seems a small wire) can be quite heavy obviously depending on length.

 

[simonpolly]

Dropwire should no longer be fastened to a chimney,Openreach should move this free of charge there should be what is called a 1024 on the pole stating that there is a chimney bracket off that pole,which should mean it will be moved some time in the future.Contact them tell them its fastened to your chimney and you worried it is making it unstable. Dont wait for them to do it you will be waiting a very long time,there are 1024 on poles that were submitted over 10 years ago and just get lost in the system.
Just for info,dropwires should only ever be re tensioned from the pole side where the engineer is secured to the pole to prevent him/her from being pulled off,also it should only be fastened to a wall using a wall anchor eye bolt not the bracket shown in the video.

 

[bernardgreen]

Simon has a good point.

My (un-used ) chimney stack with 6 circuits in two 4pair drops. ( mine and 5 circuits for adjacent businesses ) ( before the re-thatching )

When another business circuit was needed it was found that both the spare pairs were open circuit. Hence another drop was needed but it could not, under new rules, be flown from the stack.

A 12 pair underground cable was installed in a new wayleave across my yard and the aerial drop wires removed. The business was charged for a new line. The cost of changing from over head to underground was large but not charged to me or the business as OpenReach would have had to remove the over heads some time in the ( distant ) future even if a new circuit was not needed.

 

[Lindricklad]

Hi Simonpolly

I have done as you suggested and contacted Openreach - i.e. after holding on the phone for over 1/2 hour I then resorted to emailing them, where I was informed that a reply would not be expected within 5 days and may well take much longer !!

Since then, having just read an item in the Computer Active magazine it has made me think whether I would be in a position to request an upgrade to the dropwire so that I have a fibre connection from the post in the road to the connection in my property and thus if I were able to upgrade the service from my Internet supplier (currently Plusnet) I would then have FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) rather than FTTH (fibre-to-the-house) and therefore guaranteed a far faster service.

 

[simonpolly]

You got it the wrong way around,fibre into the house (FTTP) is what you would have if it was fibre from the pcp (cab) to the d.p (pole) into the house ,fttp is better.
If your area has had the network upgraded to include fibre to the overhead d.p you could then request this which would force openreachs hand because they would have to move your connection from the chimney bracket.
If you are on fttc it uses the orignal copper d side network from pcp(cab) to end user.