In reply to a post by JNeuhoff:

So there must already be an existing cable duct or telephone poles, so why would BT want to charge this excessive amount of £53 000 for a new line? Something doesn't add up here.

I see. If this quote is an exaggeration then BT are risking the wrath of Ofcom and perhaps even legal action.

So you're trying to imply..what exactly? Do you think perhaps they own a competing B&B in the area and are trying to stifle the competition?

Or perhaps this couple are actually Talk Talk customers at another property and that has so enraged BT that it is determined to prevent them getting a line installed in revenge?

That the hole in BT's pension fund is so large that BT are using this quote to help plug it?

Please explain to me why one of the UK's biggest companies is trying to overcharge someone for having a telephone line run to their property.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 04-Apr-11 08:08:22)

Has anyone read the article...

The £53,000 was for the preferred option of underground ducting.
Price reduced to £16,000 if I recall for telegraph poles.

There is a case for the USO price being subject to inflation, as it has not been adjusted for some years.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

There is a case for the USO price being subject to inflation, as it has not been adjusted for some years.

Oh well - the USO hasn't been adjusted for some years either. 28kb/s is hardly the cutting edge of data transfer technology

Given 1 mile of road that would mean around 40 poles - at 4 poles per day with a 4 man team 40 man days to install the poles. Another 3 or 4 days to wire between poles - normally two men. The last pole I had to have installed took a 5 man team over 3 hours - so 4 per day would be a good rate - take travelling time into account and the 10 days could easily be 12 to 15

Add in the cost of getting planning permission and wayleaves, road closures/lights - another 15 days or more and there is well over 60 if not 70 man days.

Plus cost of poles, machinery &c and £16,000 is not a bad price.

Another option depending on who owns the land is the trench in the ducting yourself, BT supply the duct and depth requirements.

Really only feasible if you own all the land and don't have to cross any highways.

Virgin Media appear to say no to broadband/tv/phone if the cost of getting it into a property is over £300.

Digging a mile of trench to an appropriate standard, install ducting to necessary standard, back fill, reinstate land. Hire of machinery &c &c

Would probably take someone a month with one or two to assist. Is it feasible for 1 mile? probably not.

In reply to a post by MHC:

..... at 4 poles per day with a 4 man team 40 man days to install the poles. Another 3 or 4 days to wire between poles - normally two men....

Things have changed. In a recent pole replacement programme locally, 2 sub contractors with a pole truck were stripping, removing, replacing/repositioning and rewiring the new poles and dropwires at a rate of at least 4 per day.
Whilst their workrate was perhaps excellent, the quality of work was derisory and just about every joint had to be redone by BTo engineers. From chatting to the BTo lads, this seems to be commonplace and the contractors seem to get away with it.

A few years back a poling sub-con was chopping two feet off the bottom of each one to speed up rates - when a couple of BT Techs were injured when climbing an unsafe pole thousands had to be redone.

Look at a pole and there is a horizontal line with an arrow - that is at 5 feet above ground so a tech can look and see that it is appropriately located (hopefully).

I'm well aware of that, particularly since this replacement program. The pole outside my property has to be "re-replaced" as it's only about 18" into the ground and smack on top of my gas service. The ground immediately behind it drops off by about 3' so basically, it's my boundary wall that supports the pole.
It's the highest pole I've ever seen and even in the slightest breeze, it sways like a drunken navvie. As it's so unsafe, BTo used a hired aerial platform to effect repairs to it's connections but it's due for repositioning tomorrow. I suspect that we as customers will foot the bill for this fiasco.

Still, it's an ill wind that blows no good as they say - my sync has increased significantly and my uptime is now measured in at least weeks rather than the couple of days that was previously attainable.

What I can't understand is what has happened to the wiring that supplied the phone the previous owners had.

I can understand it being cut at wherever the line has re-routed to the "new build", but one would think there would be a usable stretch of line from the premises to an accessible point.

It's almost as though that line itself, at the cut point, was a single feed back to somewhere else. Otherwise what was the need to re-use this one.

The particular linked article is typical sensational half-story of course.