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Network operator and UK ISP Brsk (Netomnia) has scrapped plans to deploy three additional 9-metre-high wood telecoms poles on Fernwood Road and Bracken Close in Marple Bridge (Stockport, Greater Manchester), which came after a significant portion of locals protested the plan. Residents complained it would have spoilt their view of the surrounding countryside.
Just to recap. Brsk and Netomnia are in the process of merging and have so far deployed their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 2.5 million UK homes (inc. 325,000 customers), which is expected to reach 3 million premises by the end of 2025 and then 5 million by the end of 2027.
The network operator’s deployment tends to involve a mix of both underground (i.e. new trenching and harnessing Openreach’s existing cable ducts, where available) and overhead work (i.e. running fibre cables via both new and existing telegraph poles). But the use of poles has sometimes got them into a spot of trouble (here) and one of their builds in Birmingham is also the subject of an Ofcom investigation (here).
The deployment of wood poles to run overhead fibre is a common practice across the UK. 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 street works) and can be built under Permitted Development (PD) rights.
However, such deployments have also attracted a fair few complaints over the past few years. Suffice to say that a lot of people find them ugly, particularly when deployed in areas that haven’t had them before, which has in some parts of the country triggered strong anti-pole protests. But the industry has recently introduced new ‘Best Practice Guidance for Poles’ to help tackle this problem, which generally requires network operators to have greater engagement with and respect for community wishes.
In the case above, Brsk had been mostly intending to harness Openreach’s existing poles and ducts in the Fernwood Road and Bracken Close areas, but they also needed to build additional poles. The problem is that, firstly, there aren’t currently that many poles in the area (a lot of existing infrastructure is underground) and many locals enjoy a scenic view of the surrounding countryside. Suffice to say, residents didn’t want that to change.
In addition, Openreach and Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) have already made gigabit-capable broadband available, although it should be said that Netomnia/brsk do offer cheaper packages and much faster speeds. But according to the Manchester Evening News, every household on Bracken Close put their names behind a letter to Brsk opposing the plans, while over 60 people on Fernwood signed a petition against the plans and also got local MPs involved. Brsk has now relented and heeded the feedback.
Gareth Cornelius, MD of Brsk, said:
“We can confirm that we will no longer be installing telegraph poles on Fernwood Road and Bracken Close in Marple Bridge.
While these streets already have existing Openreach poles, three additional poles were required to safely complete our network build in line with health and safety regulations, due to the distance between existing infrastructure.
We engaged with local residents and councillors as part of our community consultation process to explore solutions that would work for the whole community.
While some welcomed the prospect of improved broadband choice, others raised concerns. In line with our commitment to the best practice recommendations under the industry code of practice, we have listened to this feedback and decided not to proceed with our rollout in this location.
Our aim had been to invest in the community and bring essential broadband infrastructure to the area.”
It’s notable that Brsk has highlighted the revised best practice recommendations as one of the reasons for their change, which shows that they’re listening and acting on such concerns. We’ve also seen a few more cases like this over the past couple of months (i.e. providers changing their plans after feedback), but the volume of complaints is lower now because so many operators have had to scale-back or pause their builds due to wider economic challenges.
Brsk now only intends to conduct a partial network build in the area, using only existing poles and ducts, which will of course mean excluding a few premises from their originally planned coverage.