Broadband Delay for Suffolk Village After FTTC Cabinet Destroyed

Openreach (BT) has informed residents in the rural Suffolk village of Hadleigh Heath that they will have to wait until late January 2019 before a new “fibre broadband” street cabinet (FTTC service) is activated, which came after the last one was destroyed in a car crash on 16th August 2018.

According to EADT (see for pictures), the cabinet is currently still in pieces at the side of the A1071 road. By the sounds of it the cabinet had only recently been installed and was at the time in the process of being commissioned before the accident happened.

Normally Openreach would have replaced the cabinet by now, but in this case they assessed that the risk of a similar incident happening again in the future, as well as the potential for significant traffic disruption during repairs, meant that it would be better to relocate it.

A Spokesperson for Openreach said:

“The damaged cabinet on the A1071 was a newly stood box, in preparation for the roll-out of fibre broadband.

However, the significant damage prompted us to reconsider if this is the most suitable location for it.

That’s because it’s right next to a busy 60 mph road, on a bend, and would require temporary traffic lights every time we needed to work on it.”

The downside of moving a cabinet like this is that the operator will have to go through all of the usual admin, permissions, permits, power supply and other checks first before they could even begin the installation process. All of which lengthens the wait but is also largely unavoidable.