Changing from Swish to Hey!BB

I would be interested to know if others have experienced this issue.
I am changing from Swish Fibre to Hey Broadband, i.e. from one FTTP provider to another.

Swish installed overhead fibre from a pole including their own NTE.

I kind of assumed that Hey BB would reuse at least some of the infrastructure, e,g. fibre if not the NTE; but they insist that they will have to use a new fibre and drill a new hole to install it.
Swish for their part had not planned to remove their fibre from my house, and I've had to ask them specifically to do it.
Is it reasonable to expect different FTTP providers to either
a. remove all the kit and cabling when I end a contract
and/or
b. re-use infrastructure that another provider has left in place?

a. It's reasonable to expect them to do it if specifically requested, it's also reasonable to expect them to charge for this.

b. If it's a different Altnet provider (as it would be in this case) then the equipment and cable cannot be reused.

If you read the T&Cs of the AltNet service they will expect the kit to be left in situ (for the next customer or should you re-contract in future). It’s not reasonable in my opinion, to expect them to remove it, and necessarily gratis. All that costs money to send an engineer out. Different if you want to pay them to take it out.

On the second point, as these are separate physical networks, they won’t/don’t share any infrastructure. This is a fundamentally different concept to say an ISP that is utilising a wholesale network like that of Openreach, to deliver service.

a) If you request it and are happy to pay for the work to be completed
b) No

As other replied point out the Alt-Net (Swish in this case) expects their kit (including the NTE) to be left in situ in case you or a future occupier wants to reactivate the service.
HeyBB will be hoping for the same.

None of the fibre infrastructure can be shared, partly for the reason above. Swish own the fibre and paid for it to be installed. If HeyBB used the existing fibre then it can no longer be reactivated by Swish.

As for your questions....

A. No, unless you pay them.

B. No, it would be theft. It does not belong to them.

Thanks all for the replies.
When I asked Swish about this originally, their customer service person said that the fibre was being left in place in case it was needed by another provider.

Swish has agreed to remove the fibre and are not charging for it - I didn't have to make a big fuss about it and they have been really co-operative (even though as people have pointed out, they really didn't have to be).

It's sort of personal preference but I am on Lit Fibre currently but as soon as Openreach fibre is available I am going to find a provider that does it on a one-month contract and get that installed as well, before cancelling it once the ONT is fitted. The idea is that if I have any major problems with my primary provider I can have a service enabled using Openreach within a matter of days and not have to wait for an engineer visit.

Obviously this depends where the ONTs end up being installed as to how they work aesthetically, but this was all planned ahead so there's ample space and everything has been arranged to keep it all tidy.

Just out of curiosity, what’s driving you to leave Swish and join HB?

It's price basically. I was on a promotional deal of £25pm for 400MB over 12 months, now it's reverted to £45. That's a rolling monthly contract but obviously subject to CPI increases annually.
HB are offering the £25 price point albeit on an 18 month contract. I'm happy with that as long as they honour their "no price increase during contract" clause.

Wouldn't it be worth leaving Swish's equipment in place so that you can easily return on a "new customer deal" once your Hey!BB contract expires?