Question about new drop wire location

Howdy, I've just had a new fibre drop from the pole to my house and.... I'm curious about the location the openreach engineer has attached it to the eaves. It's on the very end/corner brick and.... I thought they're supposed to go at least 1 brick in?

It's also a 2 stage install so the next engineer needs to come to install the ONT and the CSP has been placed directly under where it attaches to the wall from the pole, not where I want the ONT to go which is annoying.... But yeah. Shouldn't it go one brick inwards rather than the end/corner bricjk?

Thanks

(I'd post a pic but imgur doesnt work in the UK anymore and I don't know what else to use )

Yes, you are correct, the eyebolt should be at least one brick in from a convex* corner, and also one course down from the eaves.

Sadly the rigorous training once given has been let slide. And never existed at all for contractors. How many times do you see a bend cleated with the cleat on the point of the bend. Joints made at the most easily accessible place, etc, etc.

I’ve said it many times before, and will saying many more hence. It’s the wild, Wild West out there. Productivity, and damn all else. Yeee Ha !

Hopefully no serious accidents result from some of these slipshod practices. Low dropwires, boxes left unguarded, etc.





* cannot for the life of me think what the correct word is to describe an ‘outwards pointing corner’ but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

It's about 6 rows of bricks downwards (so that's fine) but on the corner brick (on the long face of it though, 5-7cm in from the edge of the brickwork).

I wanted him to cut off an old copper line that is not in use and pull it across using that but he claimed it was a rats nest at the pole, wouldnt know which cable it was etc etc.

It was an actual openreach engineer, not a contractor, too. and he drilled a new ladder anchor point at the bottom of the wall even though there was already one there 4-5 feet up. And didn't fill it afterwards.

And as it's the first stage of a 2 stage install (pole to CSP), he placed the CSP directly underneath the attachment point with no consideration as to where the ONT will go :')

So....
Do I have any recourse with regards to the placement of the dropwire bolt? My main concern is load/tension during high winds and the cement giving way.

Thanks for your reply

I wanted him to cut off an old copper line that is not in use and pull it across using that but he claimed it was a rats nest at the pole, wouldnt know which cable it was etc etc.

This person sounds pretty pants at their job in my opinion . You put an oscillator on the line within the property, go locate the line up the stick, attach the O/H fibre dropwire and draw it back over. This is known as as a ‘cut and draw’ in the trade. BUT … as a two stage install, doing this would have taken your existing service down until the 2nd part of the install was done. Something you most likely would not want.

That the CSP got put at the bottom of the dropwire on a 2 stage install is very common. Running the inside out cable from ONT to CSP is the job for the second visit.

Do you cause to complain …. I suppose so. But I can also see why some choices were made. I think your best bet, would be to complain the siting of eyebolt. The reason they ought to be away from a corner brick, is that there less contact holding the brick in place. A sharp tug on the dropwire could drag the brick out of the wall, eyebolt still attached.

Good luck, complain sooner rather than later.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

BUT … as a two stage install, doing this would have taken your existing service down until the 2nd part of the install was done. Something you most likely would not want.

Not quite

There's (now) 4 drops from the pole.

New fibre (end brick)
Current fibre (one brick over)
Old copper line (next brick over from that)
Oldest copper line (4 bricks over from the old copper line and 1 brick upwards. this was attached to the eye where the current fibre was but got moved due to line damage caused by a tree on a neighbours property)

Anyways, the old copper line (3rd one along) is actually disused and has no connection which is why i'd suggested using that one But he claimed the pole side was a rats nest and wouldn't know which line to disconnect and doesn't have the tooling to reconnect if he gets it wrong etc etc. So wouldn't have interrupted my current service as that's on the drop to the far right.

Tis all extremely annoying.

Phone new ISP now or should I wait to query the stage 2 installer?

Either way there's going to be an eyebolt permanently on that brick (since i'm not going to get them to remove it even if they move the line over)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

* cannot for the life of me think what the correct word is to describe an ‘outwards pointing corner’ but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

An EXTERNAL corner - the opposite being an INTERNAL!

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

* cannot for the life of me think what the correct word is to describe an ‘outwards pointing corner’ but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

An EXTERNAL corner - the opposite being an INTERNAL!

There ya go …. Thanks MHC

Phone the New ISP now … it’ll be harder once it’s up and running .


And OK, lots to cut and draw.

Oh hey

Here's an image (i really miss imgur)

https://i.ibb.co/1Y7SB732/PXL-20260625-150118106.jpg

Edited by NBK (Thu 25-Jun-26 19:40:24)

There’s the remnant of the old ceramic pots open pair corner bracket. Tough stuff, hugely over engineered.
There’s an illegal ’pig tail’ bracket.

Are you running a museum of telephony there ?

Strange clap for the copper dropwire on the right ?? It almost looks like the ones they used briefly for OH fibre

I'm not sure what the pig tail one was used for, the main copper line is what the flat plastic fibre is strapped to now, never seen the pigtail in use to be honest. the shiny one on the left with the new fibre is my issue :')

https://i.ibb.co/BKcBhWdP/PXL-20260625-154241955-2.jpg

So here, new fibre far left, older plastic fibre next to it, which is what the main copper line used to attach to but got moved to the far right when the wire got damaged by a tree (to move it off said tree, which is no longer there)

And the other one, third along, is an old disused copper line. Which in my opinion is where the new fibre should have attached. Very annoying.

The pig tail ones were a forerunner of the eyebolt. And there’s still a lot about. Connecting a new dropwire to a pigtail bracket is a 10 point failure from the auditor .
The issue with them is in certain circumstances, the clamp can come off the bracket. Seen it happen once.

In reply to a post by NBK:

Here's an image (i really miss imgur)

You could try Postimages — free image hosting / image upload

About — Postimages

Quick and simple to use.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

* cannot for the life of me think what the correct word is to describe an ‘outwards pointing corner’ but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

A convex edge is the mathematical term. It is taught at primary school, so it is not unreasonable to expect people to know what you mean. The more everyday terms for convex and concave edges are exterior and interior corners, respectively.

Well, provider got back to me and said wait to see what 2nd stage install engineer says (which is tomorrow) and go from there.

Kelly's apparently coming so we'll see..... I've never had a Kelly's job before, it's always been Quinn's doing stuff (who have been pretty good for me)

Sigh. We'll see.

(I also need to find some protection for the dropwire because people pushing wheelie bins into it already, and pushing a bin against it hard right after I've said to be careful with it! -.-)

Well

They moved the fibre drop across when they came to do the inside install. Cut off the disused copper, moved the first fibre over to that and the new fibre to where the first one was..... Didn't run a new drop, just moved each across one eyebolt

https://i.ibb.co/PZgs3NxX/PXL-20260702-164619476-2.jpg

The actual install though is messy.
I wish it had been put in one brick higher and also, so close to the edge of the brick it had a nice big blowout

https://i.ibb.co/pBxwHkyd/PXL-20260702-181608699.jpg

In reply to a post by NBK:

Well

They moved the fibre drop across when they came to do the inside install. Cut off the disused copper, moved the first fibre over to that and the new fibre to where the first one was..... Didn't run a new drop, just moved each across one eyebolt

https://i.ibb.co/PZgs3NxX/PXL-20260702-164619476-2.jpg

The actual install though is messy.
I wish it had been put in one brick higher and also, so close to the edge of the brick it had a nice big blowout

https://i.ibb.co/pBxwHkyd/PXL-20260702-181608699.jpg

Can't see your pics - but Kelly's....well they honestly have a fairly poor reputation when it comes to quality. I've only crossed paths with them in recent memory on Virgin Media works and it was pretty abysmal. So it was rejected and completely redone correctly.

If you're not happy with the workmanship I would formally raise a complaint and have it redone. After all it's your house not theirs!