Openreach Faces Protest in Lincoln Over Rollout of 40 Broadband Poles

The Street Works and Permitting Manager at Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) in England, Ashley Behan, has asked network access provider Openreach (BT) to “pause” the roll-out of 40 new telecoms poles – needed to expand the coverage of their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network – until they can explain how they’re going to respond to local complaints and engage with the community.

The use of poles to run overhead cables (telecoms, electricity etc.) is a common practice across the UK, where millions have been used over the decades. This is because poles are quick and cost-effective to build (several times cheaper than trenching), can be deployed in areas where there may be no space or access agreement to safely put new underground cables, are less disruptive (avoiding the noise, access restrictions and damage to pavements of trenching) and can be built under Permitted Development (PD) rights; often with only minimal prior notice.

However, many people dislike poles – usually due to their negative visual impact and the lack of prior consultation before deployment, which in some cases has occasionally even erupted into disruptive protests. The latter is most likely to occur in areas that haven’t previously had poles before (i.e. past cables were underground), as well as areas of outstanding natural beauty or where several gigabit broadband networks may already exist.

As the Independent Councillor for the City of Lincoln Council, Biff Bean, said of Openreach’s new deployment in the Birchwood and Hartsholme areas (BBC News): “[Poles are] antiquated, old-fashioned 1950s-style technology. We don’t want our communities covered in them, especially when the option’s there to bury the cables. Openreach have got to take residents’ objections into account, not railroad them through.”

The current Labour-led government, much like the previous Conservative-led one, recently responded to this by calling on broadband operators to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), to “share existing infrastructure when installing broadband cables as the default approach” and they also pledged to foster a “revised” code of practice.

Following the code

At issue in Lincoln seems to be the question of whether or not Openreach are following the industry’s new Best Practice Guidance on Poles, which was published earlier this year. The new guidance outlines “mandatory obligations and best practice recommendations“, including notification requirements, height restrictions and regulations for natural and protected areas, making these easier to understand for everybody.

The new guidance also recommended that providers engage much more closely with communities prior to deployment and to consider the visual impact of their fibre roll-out. But Ashley Behan indicates that Openreach have not yet explained “how they’re going to engage with the community as part of the best practice guide that they’re signed up to” and should thus “pause” their deployment until they can do so.

A spokesperson for Openreach said:

“We’re listening to concerns raised locally and have already arranged meetings with the MP and council to explain our plans in more detail and hear feedback directly.

Our engineers always aim to use existing infrastructure wherever possible to minimise disruption, and we keep new poles to a minimum. However, in some areas, they’re the only way to connect everyone – especially where underground options aren’t viable.

There is strict guidance in place, and we always follow the correct processes whenever we need to put a new pole in place.”

Just to be clear. Openreach aren’t breaking any hard rules with their approach (it is not a solid requirement to consult the community prior to build), but they are perhaps at risk of damaging the credibility of the industry’s new guidance by not following its recommendations as closely as they perhaps could. Failing to do so risks reopening a can of worms and thus leading to stricter measures from the government.

The council’s Ashley Behan went on to explain how the local authority would thus like Openreach to engage in “extra community engagement, letter dropping, speaking to community leaders so that the community understand what’s going to be taking place in their streets“.

The government are currently assessing the impact of the aforementioned guidance before deciding whether further action may be required. But it should be noted that many operators have since had to scale-back their fibre deployments due to wider economic and competitive pressures (i.e. there are now fewer complaints being raised), which is the main reason why we aren’t seeing as many complaints this year as last.

Naturally, network operators have a difficult balancing act to perform, which is one that both needs to respect the government’s wishes (inc. local communities), while at the same time trying not to damage the wider roll-out and their already strained cost models. Not forgetting that consumers and businesses with access to more than one gigabit broadband network will often directly benefit from greater choice and lower prices.