Fibre Cable through Trees?

I've just had an OpenReach contractor out to my house for an FTTP install. He's told me that the fibre cable is too brittle to go through the trees between the telegraph pole and our house. He's sending the job back and says it'll result in someone coming out to cut the trees back before they put a cable in.

I'm asking here whether this seems like a likely course of events? And also is it really not possible to put a fibre cable through the trees?

We've recently had the copper cable replaced through these trees and the old cable that had been in place for 12+ years was apparently not the right sort of cable for going through trees and was very worn but had been providing us ADSL and later FTTC all that time.

We live in a conservation area so all the trees have de facto preservation orders on them therefore permission is needed to cut back the trees. The line appears to go quite close to the trunk of two large trees (both on our land). I'm not convinced if I asked for permission to cut the trees back that much it would be granted. I'm currently trying to find a local tree management service to ask but what happens if the council say no? Are we stuck with copper?

Thanks for any insight!

Are all the affected trees on your land?

If so, would it be possible to erect a sufficiently tall pole just inside your boundary, which wouldn't need to be anything like a telegraph pole, to receive the cable and take it underground? It would still need to be very durable.

Where is the telegraph pole in relation to your house. Across the road but nearly opposite, or way along the road on either side?

Openreach would of course need a cherry-picker to do the work at the top, but they often need those at telegraph poles anyway. Once the job's done it shouldn't need further attention up there. Whether Openreach or someone you hire erects it is a question, as obviously OR would need to approve it.

Vandal-proofing may need to be considered.

If some of the trees are not on your land, all you can do is wait and see.

Alternatively could it be routed through a neighbour's land? I expect a formal legal wayleave would need to be set up. No doubt not cheap.

Yeah we had that before the FoD service was connected. It was another reason why the existing copper and new fibre connection follow different paths and terminate on opposing eaves, so as to avoid the deepest tree growth on the copper span. OR only had to do some light tree trimming with the revised route. Last pole span to premises is approx 56 metres.

On the route from agg. node, about 33 pole spans plus underground sections, the main service passes through an adjacent to several other deep tree covers at least 2 to 3 spans. It’s unavoidable, but so far it’s been OK despite several seasonal storms and winds.

Probably just didn’t fancy doing the job. If it was just your connection on the drop wire he could have used cut and draw to replace the original copper wire with your new fibre.

Round my way they have deployed fibre through trees without trimming and used a spiral wrap to protect the fibre through any potential contact points.

In reply to a post by kadi:

We live in a conservation area so all the trees have de facto preservation orders on them therefore permission is needed to cut back the trees. . I'm not convinced if I asked for permission to cut the trees back that much it would be granted.

What council area you?.

I live in a conservation area also and I have TPO (tree protection order) on some of my trees.
What you do is take photo's of the problem branches then you serve a notice on your council planning department.
You send an email headed .

I am serving you (your council) a 5 day notice that work will be done on a tree in a conservation area.
You need name and address and a short details of the trees and what you intend to get done.

BT Openreach have put lots of new fibre through lots of trees in our area.
They gave me a short off cut and the outer plastic is very very tough and it includes strengthening inside to protect the fragile strands of fibre thinner than a hair.

My computer tells me that "Trees growing in a conservation area they are protected by the provisions in section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. These provisions require people to notify the relevant LPA (using what’s referred to as a section 211 notice) six weeks before any intended work on the protected trees to obtain the LPA’s consent for the work.

i.e 42 days notice needed not 5.

In reply to a post by kadi:

I'm asking here whether this seems like a likely course of events? And also is it really not possible to put a fibre cable through the trees?

Sadly every case is different, in certain scenarios as others have said a protective wrap is added on the fibre cable at the point it goes through the trees and that can be enough but that is not always the case. My biggest concern was the point about it being a contractor as they do seem to push jobs back if they can. The fact that you have had issues with a previous copper drop wire does imply that something needs to be done.

Most trees around here have been cut back to make way for the new overhead fibre, if that helps at all.

:Lazy ****** !

The pole with CBT feeds another pole from where my service comes across to te house. Between the two poles are aropud 12 trees - the fibre cable goes straight through them - they used the old drop wire to pull it through

If the copper goes through the trees then AFAIK the fibre shouldn't be a problem, but there may be some specific problem, and as nobody here can actually see the route you can't have a 100% answer.
We live in a listed building in a conservation area, next doors fibre goes through several trees on our property on it's way from pole to his house.
I believe I may have posted on here before several weeks after he had fibre installed he came round mouthing off about our trees cutting his line and how he would have them cut down, turns out the entire village had lost FTTP.