FTTP & Overhead Power Lines

Hi, I�m on cab 3 Newcastle Emlyn exchange and BT estimate that I will be able to order an FTTP service within the next 5 months.

As part of the FTTP infrastructure build out, BT/Openreach contractors dug out a 100metre+ trench in the carriageway outside my house a couple of weeks ago and laid ducting to take the fibre feed. A scheduled two-day job took nearly 5 days to complete due to them encountering very hard volcanic rock (a feature of where I live in West Wales). The contractors said they had to dig this trench to avoid the nearby overhead power lines (not the high voltage pylon type). Now my understanding is that fibre optics are not affected by the closeness of any power lines. Indeed, at one time, it was thought that BT could share the poles of utility companies and strap the fibre optics to their ones but they couldn�t get the Power companies to agree to this. I have spoken to other contractors working on the same line further down the road and they also said that they had been told to avoid the overhead power lines as well. Have they been misinformed?

In digging this supposedly unnecessary trench, the contractors have bypassed the telegraph pole opposite my property. Recently, while I was away, they came back to pull the fibre through the ducting. One end of the fibre optic cable has been strapped to a pole 50 metres away to the left of me on the other side of the road; the other end has been strapped to another pole 50 metres away to my right on the same side of the road as me. Now if they run the fibre optic cable up these two poles, they will be fairly near to the overhead power cables anyway (DOHHHHHHHHH!!!!) so was digging the trench a waste of time and resources?

On the basis that power lines do not affect the fibre optics, can I assume that BT will run the fibre cable back to the pole opposite me (the one they bypassed) and then run it towards my house? If so, I'm not sure how it will be conveyed - hopefully, it will be up in the air to start with (near to my phone line) so that there will be no need to dig up my garden or drive. Any thoughts please on this assumption?

National Grid has plenty of fibre wrapped around it, but at the local network level the rules mean no new infrastructure on shared power/telecoms poles.

With copper it was easy to spot remotely if the power or phone lines come into contact, with fibre you have no way of telling until someone is up a pole and touches a damp fibre tube and learns the hard way.

Similar safety problems in some areas with height of wires across road, i.e. new rules mean higher road crossings in some cases.

I recall Openreach had reached a licencing agreement with one power company, possibly western power, to fix overhead fibre to their poles. They may be negotiating with other power companies

Many thanks for your responses and for the explanation re the Health & Safety issue.

In a posting on 26 May 2016 to http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4427673-possi... �Ribble� mentioned that WPD (Western Power Distribution?) had recently granted a licence to BT/Openreach to use their poles. WPD cover my area in Wales so I�m surprised that pole sharing isn�t being implemented here in my particular locality (as far as I�m aware).

Fibre manifolds are yet to appear on any poles in my road. A new concrete chamber was installed near to cab 3 but that is nearly 2km away. I have not located any additional underground chamber nearer to me to house the Splitter DPs so presumably this will be installed later. Is this correct?

As mentioned in my initial posting on 22 Nov 16, the contractors have bypassed the pole opposite my property. I don�t understand the logic for them doing this as it's more than 6 metres away from the power lines that won�t affect the fibre optics anyway. The nearest poles to me are now 50 metres away (to the left of me on the opposite side of the road and 50 metres away to my right on the same side of the road as me). My concern is if they don�t use the nearest pole opposite my property, I then won�t get access to FTTP. Am I worrying unnecessarily?

Am I worrying unnecessarily?

In short, yes.

50m is no biggie as a span.

This may be changing, I had sight of the Openreach FEN November 2016 FTTP special issue which states "We can now place fibre cables, joints and CBTs on EL poles in exactly the same way we do for copper, excepting no attachments can be made on Electricity NorthWest poles"

+1

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Am I worrying unnecessarily?

In short, yes.

50m is no biggie as a span.

No problem with a 50m span - I have a 40m front garden and the house to pole distance is about 48 or 49m. However, does 50m exceed the normal max span for crossing a road with normal height poles and that extra height poles are used to get distances up to 70m which I believe is the maximum and above that the strain exceeds the safe working loads for some fixings.

I acknowledge that a 50m span should cause no problems. However, I think the main issue for me is the angle that will be created if the cable is run to my property from either of the two poles I have mentioned. I�m set back from the road so the cable would have to run over the front gardens of neighbouring properties which may raise objections. The obvious solution would be for BT/Openreach to run the cable back to the pole (which the contactors bypassed) opposite me. �Que sera, sera�!

In reply to a post by Broadbean2:

I acknowledge that a 50m span should cause no problems. However, I think the main issue for me is the angle that will be created if the cable is run to my property from either of the two poles I have mentioned. I�m set back from the road so the cable would have to run over the front gardens of neighbouring properties which may raise objections. The obvious solution would be for BT/Openreach to run the cable back to the pole (which the contactors bypassed) opposite me. �Que sera, sera�!

They cannot normally object to the drop wires over their gardens - it happens like that all the time.