New build telephone cable costs

[IJP]

I need to put in an underground telephone cable from a new build house. The distance from house to road up our private drive is approx 35m. The telegraph pole with the main line is approx 4m from our drive entrance. I'm planning on getting my own ducting grey plastic and the electric guys are happy for me to drop the duct into the trench I dug for them to put their new electric cabling into. The BT duct wil go from our house to the actual pole. Openreach have quoted me £2,300. I'm told only they can supply the cable even though the BT engineer has said he can connect it up once the cable is in place. What can I do? It seems a colllosal invoice!! Help please.

 

[plugwash]

Combine the overhead of a big monpolistic company with the costs of digging up even a relatively small ammount of road and you get figures like that.

Unfortunately I doubt there is anything you can do about it.

 

[Iamchamps]

You have no permit to dig a public footway and obviously the cost of a trained and certified crew to do it will cost money. While £2300 is steep I do not really see a way round it.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Sounds reaasonable to me, there's a considerable cost involved in any works on or adjacent to the highway. It sounds a lot cheaper than it would be for BTOR to erect new poles for the entire run overhead.

 

[bernardgreen]

If the work includes the cable / duct going under a public highway and/or foot path then the costs of traffic management will be expensive.

If the pole is in a grass verge then trafic management may not be necessary and that cost can be removed from the quote. Was the quote based on drawings and plans or has an OpenReach surveyor been to site before the quote was produced.

Is this a DIY new build ? If it is and the pole is in a verge then it is worth having a conversion with the local council Highways Department. They may "informally" permit you to extend your trench to be be very close to the base of the pole. ( let OpenReach dig the last foot or two in case there are cables there ).