Openreach won't install fibre but the neighbours get it

I am in an area that has access to fibre internet (and my neighbours have fibre) but I cannot get it (despite being 25 metres away).

I rang up some internet providers to see if I could get fibre at my property and they all said no. I was lucky that one of them told me the reason being that the telephone pole next to my property has been marked as a "D-Pole". A "D-Pole" is one that is deemed not safe to climb so they cannot provide me with fibre as a result. They said what I can do is report this to Openreach to fix the issue then come back to them when it's resolved.

I then contacted Openreach via their live chat (you can only speak to their damage department as a member of the public). They noted that it's "D-Pole" as there are some cracks in the pole but cannot tell me when it will be fixed. They also told me it's been like this for many years (so basically don't expect it to be fixed anytime soon!). I asked for their advice on what I can do, and they said you would have to contact them through your broadband provider. But as I can't get broadband, I can't contact them! (I did tell them this and they couldn't do anything).

So I'm in my property (moved in 4 weeks ago) and have no broadband. My neighbours have it and there's a second telephone pole I can see across the street (about 30 metres from my house) which has fibre cables coming out of it to the neighbours. I don't know how I can get connected now as no one is contactable.

Looking for some advice on what I can do now as I'm very disappointed considering I'm working from home and just tethering from my mobile phone for now.

Hi,

You might have better luck with a smaller provider (who is still a direct Openreach customer).

Call them or someone like that and ask them if they can help. You need someone who will go the extra mile, rather than someone who says you can't get broadband. Also if that doesn't work getting your MP involved may help push Openreach.

I don't know about processes but I don't know why they couldn't use a cherry picker to access such a pole if it's not safe to climb but is safe to leave up.

Any chance you can send me a private message with your full address (house number, street and postcode)? I'd like to look at this a bit more. Alternatively you can e-mail it to [email protected] along with a link to this thread.

seb

Fill this form in, and pick "my neighbours can get fibre but I can't" as the reason for contacting

https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-avai...

Keep it brief and just say that you can't get FTTP but your neighbours (list some example addresses) can. Don't mention the D pole.

Thank you Seb. It seems to me that at the moment only some smaller providers can give fibre in my area (not the big main ones). But one of the providers I rang up said it was on Openreach infrastructure.

I think that's the next option, for me to contact one of those smaller providers (3 that can get to my property) and give them further details.(one of those being Upp).

I'm not entirely convinced the d pole is the sole reason as it would either be replaced as part of the network build or as part of the provision process if it's a carrier pole. Unless there is a special reason why it can't be replaced.

Our pole had a do not climb label for many years, if OR wanted to access top of pole they used a cherry picker, if it was 'Kowboy Communication' they just climbed it regardless.

I used these https://noone.co.uk/ they helped me a lot with my connection that one of the big companies could not get done.

It will not hurt sending the team an email [removed by tbb] (CEO of Openreach).

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:40:46)