New fibre line through trees

Denice66

I recently upgraded to full fibre through BT and Openreach installed a new line. They've run the new wire from the same pole at the bottom of my garden but it goes to a new access point on the house. It now goes right through my trees, no clearance at all,  and I can see the wire is already wrapping round some of the branches. Is this right? I'm worried that any high winds are going to bring the wire down, or interfere with the service quality. I don't want to have to go to the expense of trimming the trees every year. The old wire was a foot or two away from them so wasn't a problem. Can I contact Openreach and ask them to move the wire? Or should I send something in writing now, to pre-empt any problems? I don't want to be stuck with a bill for line damage/repairs when it's clearly inevitable that'll happen, because of where they've run the line. Any advice appreciated.

QrizB

Our copper line runs through the canopy of next door's trees. Every 5-6 years the trees eat the cable and we lose phone & broadband for a couple of weeks until OpenReach come out to replace it.

We get on well with our neighbours and they let us share their broadband when the line's down. We let them share ours when it's their turn.

OpenReach have never suggested moving the cable ...

35har1old

Denice66 said:

I recently upgraded to full fibre through BT and Openreach installed a new line. They've run the new wire from the same pole at the bottom of my garden but it goes to a new access point on the house. It now goes right through my trees, no clearance at all,  and I can see the wire is already wrapping round some of the branches. Is this right? I'm worried that any high winds are going to bring the wire down, or interfere with the service quality. I don't want to have to go to the expense of trimming the trees every year. The old wire was a foot or two away from them so wasn't a problem. Can I contact Openreach and ask them to move the wire? Or should I send something in writing now, to pre-empt any problems? I don't want to be stuck with a bill for line damage/repairs when it's clearly inevitable that'll happen, because of where they've run the line. Any advice appreciated.

Where you not there on day of installation ?

Denice66

I was around when they did it a few weeks ago but was working so just left them to it. I hadn't really looked tbh until the other day when it was really obvious as snow was sitting on the line. You can see from the pic that the new line goes straight through the branches and is already tangled. The old line looks close but is actually about a foot away from the trees - it's just the angle of the pic.

molerat

Daughter's is similar.  Old copper passes through the tree as it has grown round the wire but the new fibre goes below one branch and up and over another.  If the branches were removed you would probably be able to touch the cable as it would drop that low !

Denice66

Molerat - assuming your daughter hasn't had any problems, I guess maybe they leave enough 'give' in the line to allow for some movement. I'm in Scotland so it does get a bit breezy at times though! I think I may just write a letter, with no expectation of response, and in the hope it may be useful if there is an issue in future. 

Raxiel

Not a huge help I know, but while I was chatting to my OR engineer as he was installing our fibre, he told me a story about someone in the area who's original copper line ran through trees and they needed it replacing every couple of years, apparently they found the fibre a lot more robust and the first run lasted about 2.5 times as long as copper.

He told me he asked them if they'd considered notching the tree to avoid it rubbing as much, and apparently they hadn't.

iniltous

OR do have devices to fit to cables that run through trees , in simple  terms the cable passes through a tube that can rotate around the cable , so the branches rub against the tube ( which moves ) not against the cable …..as far as running the cable , often a process called ‘cut and draw’ is used , the new cable it attached to the old one , the old one disconnected , and then used to pull the new one into place following the path the old cable took , obviously this cannot be done if service is still needed on the old copper wire .

Eldi_Dos

The actual fibre that will be carrying the signal will only be 125 nanometers ( before cladding) the rest of the cable you see is protection.With it being overhead there is a good chance it has kevlar in its make up.Quite robust stuff if you look it up.

OP, could you mark run of cable through treeline as I am having difficulty picking it out.