Telephone pole knocked over

Our entire village fttp just got wiped out because somebody hit a pole. Just curious, will they have to replace the cable between two track nodes or is it bigger than that?

Edited by zebb_edi (Mon 29-Aug-22 23:12:44)

In reply to a post by zebb_edi:

. . . will they have to replace the cable between two track nodes or is it bigger than that?

It really depends upon the extent of the damage.

I have been through exactly the same - albeit with FTTC and just two houses.

Openreach will remove and make safe, and then have to plan for a new pole installation. It may not be possible to locate exactly. That will normally mean a set of temporary lights and local authority permission which in our case, due to teh LA being slow, at least 13 weeks.

BT (my ISP) provided my with a 4g router as an interim solution - so you will need to be on top of your ISP, but don't expect resolution "tomorrow or next week".

And if it's not BT, but is one of of the others signed up to the Ofcom compensation scheme, they should pay you £8.40 per day after the first two days - which should help pay for you to get mobile data yourself.

Let’s hope someone has passed the details of the person who wrote the pole off to Openreach so they can recoup their losses too.

The main point being, though, is keep on top of the ISP.

In reply to a post by MHC:

The main point being, though, is keep on top of the ISP.

Agreed.

In reply to a post by MHC:

at least 13 weeks.

Lets hope it doesn't take that long for the OP, getting a permit as you say can take a long while depending on what type of road the pole is located and what TM is required, I got a dangerous pole changed in just shy of 3 weeks but that was on a country lane but if its a full road closure on a busy road it could take 3 months or more as you say.

+1 for keeping on top of ISP and if required escalate to Openreach high level complaints if the predicted reinstatement time is looking grim.

Blimey, let's hope nothing like that happens here when we get our fibre installed soon. A 4G router is as useful as a chocolate fireguard around these parts.

We wanted to claim costs from teh driver too ... the Met Police wanted to charge me £40 to provide the drivers details ! I believe that OR may well be charged too.

In reply to a post by sjr:

Blimey, let's hope nothing like that happens here when we get our fibre installed soon. A 4G router is as useful as a chocolate fireguard around these parts.

If someone did that to our pole, they would need to go right onto the pavement and then smash into a wall, I don't think the car would move much after. But then someone did smash into a cabinet a couple of streets away and vanished, they must have done a load of damaged to their car, it could have been a lorry I suppose.

13 weeks!! wow I hope it doesn't take that long. The pole is located on quite a busy B road with about 1m of verge to the side so it will definitely require traffic management. There's also a gas mains right by it. (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.624296,-2.4189558,18z)

If they can replace a stretch between two track nodes then there is 1 track node just before the damaged pole but the next one will require them to run the replacement cable over the road to the other side and then back across to the same side and then through some ducting.

I'm with zen but they told me they only have a few backup dongles and it's first come first served whoever rings up first thing in the morning. My work are sending me some kind of EE MiFi device but we don't have very good mobile signal in this area. Most of us are completely cut off now with no broadband, no digital voice and no mobile signal.

It's proving rather difficult to get any concrete evidence as to when it will be fixed. Each ISP seems to just be giving different answers. We've been told last night by 4pm, Wednesday and Friday. Also been told there are Openreach strikes so things could be delayed.

Also been told there are Openreach strikes so things could be delayed.

Afraid so. It will be made safe but that is all that will happen for a few days at least.

You currently taking a break from the picket line to post here?

I have bigger problems to deal with

Happened a few months ago to a friend of mine in a Devon village. Pole was OK, but a lorry took out the fibres and multipair copper between two poles. Took three weeks, but eventually OR turned up, replaced one of the poles, and re-spliced everything.

Fault reporting via BT Retail was hopeless, they kept saying a line test showed no fault !

In reply to a post by MHC:

We wanted to claim costs from teh driver too ... the Met Police wanted to charge me £40 to provide the drivers details ! I believe that OR may well be charged too.

Its free to request it yourself if you have the registration https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla

DVLA can refuse, the didn’t provide the details for a car that was dumped. Luckily local council was able to remove it.

No, that gives details of the registered keeper NOT the driver. If I had that I could then ask te keeper who was driving, and what would they do with the request? Ignire it.

My work are sending me some kind of EE MiFi device but we don't have very good mobile signal in this area. Most of us are completely cut off now with no broadband, no digital voice and no mobile signal.

Depending on how long the outage lasts, it may be worthwhile getting a proper 4G router (with an external antenna if needs be).

You should have some compensation from Zen so that at least makes up some of the outlay.

If it was a longer term outage, and the mobile reception / data throughput on all networks was diabolical I would suggest Starlink RV but that comes at a capital cost of around £500 or so and then a monthly charge of £95 (which admittedly can be paused).

This has always been one of my gripes with ISP's sending out temporary 4G routers on a specific network as they automatically assume you will get a signal from their chosen 4G network which not everyone does.

When It happened to me, I specifically asked which network and at that time BT had Vodafone available but could get O2. As I was (and still am) in a VF back hole, under the beam, it took an extra day for an O2 to be delivered.

Sigh, this is incredibly frustrating. We've had no internet since last Sunday 10pm now. I received my EE MIFi from work, but can only get 1mbit and it constantly disconnects.

We were told it would be resolved by today, but that has now updated to say next week. I really hope they don't just keep pushing the date back further and further until it's 13 weeks.

It is probably out of ORs control waiting for the LA

There have been two days of industrial action at Openreach this week .

This may provide no comfort, it possibly explains some of the delay.

So after the Friday deadline came and went I contacted our South Glos ward councillor who confirmed no requests for traffic management had been submitted but he would ask for anything to be prioritised if it came in.

A few of us then contacted openreach DSO directly who confirmed nothing had been planned or estimated but they would investigate with local patch team. They then sent back several emails over the weekend and then put in emergency traffic management approval for today. So there's currently a whole stack of openreach vans and a pole boring machine up there with traffic lights. They've also confirmed the cabling guys are on site ready to cable it and that provided everything goes smoothly hopefully we should be back in action soon. I really hope so.

Zen's sole contribution to this ordeal was to email me a couple of times to tell me that they'd run a test and the line still wasn't working. Seriously, as if i didn't know? They literally did not want to do a thing.

So I dunno, not so impressed with the local openreach patch team (perhaps they are short staffed, busy or just plain didn't prioritise anything). Kudos to openreach DSO for getting the ball rolling quickly. As for zen.... absolute joke. I have no idea what has happened to this company. I knew more than they did and I'm not supposed to be dealing directly with openreach.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Well done for getting on the case and “managing” the situation. Shame your ISP isn’t up to it.

You were lucky with the "emergency approval" ... in te case here, it was rejected by the LA.

The local poling manager and his manager came to see us and apologised. It was when talking to them did I realise that the next but one manager in the heirarchy was a former colleague of mine ... The two there then proposed a 5:00 AM start without the LA knowing ... they prewarned other residents and a couple of days later, it was finished when I took coffee and bacon rolls out at 7:00.

Yes maybe I did get lucky.

I'm not sure how the emergency traffic management stuff works. I don't know if openreach just go ahead and do the work and fill out a stack of paperwork afterwards or if me contacting my councillor helped. I have worked with the councillor before so know him fairly well. He did say they are allowed to perform emergency work, so maybe it just comes down to local council.

DSO said it was being done as an emergency and the listing on roadworks.org has a big E in the top left corner saying it is emergency repair work.

And we're back!!!! Fixed! Amazing amount of work done in 1 day. So relieved.