Re. Broadband > Installation issue > Cabling issue I would like to raise a complaint about my neighbour's Broadband service. The issue occurred around 2024-11-12. To explain in more detail Virgin media installed a cable to my neighbour's property [REMOVED], Cambusbarron, FK7) right across my back garden without my permission in Nov 2024. I complained at the time, but Virgin has done nothing about it. In the recent storm, the cable has sagged and is hanging even lower. I have had several cable engineers from outreach look at the cable and all said that this should have been routed to the pole at the back of my neighbour's house and a junction box installed there to prevent it from crossing my garden. Even if this is at a legal height it does not make it right. The cable is an eye sore and has upset me and made our neighbour relations even worse. Installers trespassed on my property to install the cable. This was a unnecessary installation and a very poor customer experience. In order to resolve my issue, I would like you to reroute the cable, so that it does not cross my garden. [Mod edit - personal information removed]

ade6 wrote: Another poleGoogle's aerial photo of your postcode is poor so I may not have worked out the geography correctly. Is the distant telephone pole in your photos adjacent to a private parking area, accessed by a driveway off Quarry Road?If so, and if I have worked out the geography correctly, they may have avoided using that pole so as not to take the cable over the parking area which may well have more stringent height restrictions. The sloping ground towards Touch Road exacerbates the problem for you when the cable comes from the pole nearest your home.As per jpeg1, set your expectations to the very lowest level as far as any interest/action from VM is concerned.

That cable looks terribly, er, 'vulnerable', doesn't it? A bit of wind... Or an accidental bonfire underneath?

VM will most likely respond to your complaint in the usual manner, which is to ignore and ignore, and then ignore some more. This usually has the intended result that you can no longer waste any more time, you reluctantly accept what they have done, and you stop bothering them.The only alternative is for you to deal with the matter yourself, and in most cases they will be right that you won't do so.

I know, but that is not the point. It was a thoughtless and unnecessary installation. A sad example of a company which doesn't care and doesn't seem to want to engage with me to put things right for both me and my neighbour

ade6 wrote: That is my neighbours private road and drive. It is all on the level from the pole to the rear of his house and would not have been a problem. The cable height would have been 3 times higher than the cable height over my garden. The installing engineer has just been lazy and thoughtless.Unfortunately it is not possible to judge any of these things based solely on your photos or Google Streetview images. Most people replying on here with be trying to either a) give you some legitimate technical reason to take VM to task for the installation or b) giving you a technical/practical reason why the cable might have been installed the way it has.If the distant pole was a quicker/easier/better option then, as per jpeg1, it is very likely that would have been chosen by the installers as that is what crops up on here time and again with unsatisfactory installation topics.The BID website says your postcode is served by XGS via PIA. For the fibre optic connections in my street/area, the fibre connections from an individual home come to the pole where they meet a Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT) and all the individual cables from each house plug in there.https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/c508e88d214639cca31a8179c28fd9a0.jpgIn the pic above, the box with the 8 covers is for fibre connections (styles and types vary).The poles in your photos appear very different to the ones on Streetview (which show horizontal arms and isolators at the top) so it is not possible to judge what is at the top of each pole.The distant pole in your photos does not show any obvious signs of CBT boxes and it does not appear (within the limitations of the photo) that any individual homes are served from that pole. It looks like it might be a mid span post taking the weight of the cables.Post up a photo of the top of the pole next to your home (where the offending cable is connected) to show what is up there. You may have some different arrangement, to the link above, for your neighbour's connection.If the post next to your home has the CBT boxes at the top, and the distant one has no CBT boxes, then that might explain why the post nearest to you was used.

Complaint about neighbours broadband cable installed right across my back garden

RetiredATCO
Dialled in
14 days ago
Why have you consulted OPENREACH engineers?
They will only have opinions as to the way they install, not what the VM contractors have done.
If it is as the recommended height crossing your garden then the best you can hope for is an apology for someone entering your garden without your permission.
ade6
Tuning in
14 days ago
Outreach have been attending to my separate broadband cable and they have also been upgrading the poles.
- RetiredATCO
  Dialled in
  14 days ago
  VM don't use OPENREACH cables, so that is irrelevant.
- Carley_S
  Forum Team
  12 days ago
  Hi ade6
  
  Welcome to the Community Forums.
  
  Sorry to hear of your concerns with your neighbour's installation that is routed across your garden. Are you able to provide photos of the cable and how this is sagging and installed in relation to your property, please? With this, we'll be able to investigate and advise further
  - ade6
    Tuning in
    7 days ago
    Hi,
    Hi, it is difficult to take a photo that illustrates the problem, but the cable it 4m above the middle of my garden. Is sags lower in the wind due to flex in the cable. Even if this is at a legal height, it does not make it right. I would have understood if there had been no alternative, but it could have easily been installed via the pole at the rear of my neighbours house. The installation across my garden was done without my consent and has caused a neighbour dispute. It is an eye sore and I would like it removed. I complained to virgin after it was installed but nothing was done about it, despite your online team assuring me it would be addressed. A very poor customer experience.
Client62
Alessandro Volta
14 days ago
It would help to share a few photos of the drooping cable.
badoit
Dialled in
7 days ago
That cable looks terribly, er, 'vulnerable', doesn't it? A bit of wind... Or an accidental bonfire underneath?
Client62
Alessandro Volta
7 days ago
Welcome to full fibre and streets that look like we are back in the 1940s.
Roger_Gooner
Alessandro Volta
7 days ago
Above residential driveways/gardens the minimum height for cables is 3.5 metres (11.5 feet).
- ade6
  Tuning in
  7 days ago
  I know, but that is not the point. It was a thoughtless and unnecessary installation. A sad example of a company which doesn't care and doesn't seem to want to engage with me to put things right for both me and my neighbour
- Salt-n-Pepper
  Joining in
  7 days ago
  3m actually.
jpeg1
Alessandro Volta
7 days ago
VM will most likely respond to your complaint in the usual manner, which is to ignore and ignore, and then ignore some more. This usually has the intended result that you can no longer waste any more time, you reluctantly accept what they have done, and you stop bothering them.
The only alternative is for you to deal with the matter yourself, and in most cases they will be right that you won't do so.
- Salt-n-Pepper
  Joining in
  7 days ago
  True, but in this case I suspect that VM are in the right.
  'Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022', section 60, does actually give VM the legal right to run their cable over anyone’s property as long as it is more than 3m above the ground (not 3.5m as mentioned above) and doesn’t get closer than 2m from an existing structure.
  As per the post above regarding ‘an accidental bonfire’, alas the Courts will see that as deliberate damage and act accordingly.
  I’m sorry but to the OP, you’re going to have to live with it, in cases such as this you don’t actually own the airspace above your property, no more than you could demand that airplanes don’t fly over.
jpeg1
Alessandro Volta
6 days ago
They also have a duty of care, and if as the OP says there was a more responsible way of running the cable they should have done so, rather than drape the cable right across his garden.
But of course they have chosen the quickest, cheapest way of doing the job and they will get away with it.
nodrogd
Very Insightful Person
6 days ago
In my area things were quite tidy until Openreach & FW Networks started putting in fibre from the poles. Due to blocked ducts etc they have taken to “daisy chaining” the street poles and installing new ones next to existing properties, some of which they have not even used. Luckily being in a legacy cable area all VM infrastructure is underground, but no matter where you are now the overhead infrastructure is starting to look more like it is in less developed countries.
Does your installation look like it’s legal? Yes, it does.
ade6
Tuning in
2 days ago
Steven - please private message me again - the online system will not allow me to send you my details for some reason