Virgin Media O2 and Mutual Energy Make UK Streetworks Safer by Joining LSBUD
The LSBUD (Line Search Before You Dig) organisation, which offers an online asset search facility to UK civil engineering firms for underground pipes and cables, has said that Northern Ireland’s underground pipes and cables will be “safer than ever before” after Virgin Media (O2) and Mutual Energy joined their platform.
The operators both just became the first members of LSBUD’s platform in Northern Ireland, which is said to be “helping to protect UK infrastructure, workers, and the public from avoidable utility strikes” (i.e. damage to infrastructure, not union activity). At present more than 12,000 kilometres of underground assets are registered on LSBUD across NI.
By registering, these founding Members can now provide detailed asset maps to anyone looking to take on an excavation project, which should help to protect both their own networks and those doing the digging.
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Richard Broome, Managing Director of LSBUD, said:
“We’re so pleased to be welcoming the first Members in Northern Ireland to our growing network. With existing Members and Users pushing for us to expand our services into Northern Ireland, following the success our service has had in the UK, the move marks a major milestone for the safe digging community.
We would like to thank our founding Members Mutual Energy and VMO2 for being so proactive in their pursuit of safety. The impact of a strike can have serious ramifications, from expensive repairs and disrupted services through to reputational damage and risk to life. By joining our established service, not only are they protecting their assets from costly damage, but also keeping those people digging around them safe. Safe digging is for all.”
But this approach does appear to compete a bit with the UK Government’s ongoing development of a National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) for England, Northern Ireland and Wales, which represents a new digital map of underground pipes and cables (broadband, power, water etc.) – also intended to help reduce accidental damage.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Look at that.
VM have finally joined LSBUD, decades after every other provider, and several years after they should have joined NUAR.
Guess we can expect them to join NUAR in 10 years or so.
This is the same VM whose Civils Contractors regularly damages their own network.
Anyone remember the strike in the run up to Christmas a few years ago that left hundreds of thousands of their own customers without broadband for many days?
No, sorry. Remember one in London that took down tens of thousands when high fibre count cables were lost a few Christmases ago but pretty sure it wasn’t anyone doing work for VM unless they are sidelining in property construction giving it happened drilling a shaft on a building site.
VM was always on DigDat (I guess a rival to LSBUD).
Everyone should be on NUAR. It’s a phenomenal system for being only just out of Minimum Viable Product. For an altnet I help it’s already helped provide the local gas network mapping of the assets near work they were undertaking.
It’s really disappointing BT have not joined.
I used the service last month after being contacted by Northern Gas Networks about a high pressure pipeline near my property. It claims to be a free service for residential too and that all utilities will comply. Tapped in my postcode and it told me that two NGN and Northumbrian Water have pipework near to my land.
NGN supplied their drawings free of charge, direct to me within 24 hours of where the pipeline in, in relation to my land. Northumbrian Water also replied from my enquiry asking for payment for their drawings.