Posted By: Doubting_ThomasAfter 2 years of being obstructive in every way possible the owner of the (private) road outside our new build is now refusing Openreach the right to replace their existing overhead line with an underground fibre duct and, in the process, from making a new connection to our property.

My first thought there would be to consult a solicitor (or ask on a legal forum?) and see whether you or Openreach have any rights that trump your road-owner's objection. At the last house we owned we had a Telewest (latterly Virgin) cabinet right at the end of our drive, but it was a shared drive and despite all four of us neighbours that shared and jointly owned the drive applying for a connection to Virgin, and their salesmen being keen to make sales to us, we never did get them to make a connection. So I was very hot chasing our solicitor when we bought our plot to make sure we had continuing rights over the shared drive* written very clearly. And we put a comms duct in to a roadside BT chamber, so we can blow whatever without digging up anything.

What I'm wondering about is whether if they get their duct that close, there's some form of local transmitter that can bridge the last few metres to our property wirelessly.

Technically there is of course but who is going to own and operate that transmitter on whose property? You can bet Openreach won't. There are various local broadband suppliers but they tend to rely on farmers joining and digging trenches across their fields and suchlike rather than individual householders. It's also technically possible to run a fibre overhead of course, though I have no idea whether Openreach will consider that.

*edit: not shared ownership: the neighbour owns it, we have certain rights to use it

Or there's satellite broadband.

We had certain rights in our shared access road, which another party ignored, and when eventually we enforced then the resulting neighbour dispute and full on unpleasantness lasted for several years and dragged in our (formerly mutual) friends from miles around, making it impossible for any other neighbourhood issues to be dealt with. Consider carefully before starting legal proceedings on your neighbours, however much you are legally in the right.

We had problems with Openreach and in the end ditched them and used a local WiMAX supplier.

Posted By: SprocketAre you rural? Have you checked any local broadband providers?
Around the SouthWest we have TrueSpeed putting in 200MBps broadband to rural communities at pretty decent prices.

We are rural and also in the South West. Unfortunately we also have the high voltage lines around our house so they can't string onto the power line (even though the old existing phoneline did - they can only remove not replace!)

Posted By: djhMy first thought there would be to consult a solicitor (or ask on a legal forum?) and see whether you or Openreach have any rights that trump your road-owner's objection.

That's the irony - we do have certain rights, conferred in the deeds, which our solicitor has passed on. However the standard approach means the operators still have to ask permission before starting work and since the landowner has ceased communicating, the easy option for Openreach is to just cancel the order rather than pursue it through the courts...

Sounds like Satellite/relay may be the only other option. We definitely have line of sight to a big radio transmitter on the horizon but I don't know what that means in practice yet.

Thanks for the help guys.

Posted By: SteveZI seem to remember that BT (and other utilities) can use a 'wayleave' to gain access to land to install lines. Was this ever correct and does it still apply if it was?

That is correct and yes what usually happens is they arrange a form of 'rent' with the landowner for the ongoing right to access the land as necessary to maintain the equipment etc.

Where this breaks down is if the landowner isn't interested.

As you imply, they can force wayleaves where necessary through the courts but this is an expensive procedure that they generally avoid - particularly where the only 'gain' is one extra paying customer and an ongoing obligation to pay the now angry landowner in perpetuity...

Perhaps you might be in a 'better'situation if your existing phoneline were accidently damaged or got blown down by the wind or something. Then it would be a case of the universal service obligation rather than just an additional or upgraded connection?

<blockquote>

That's the irony - we do have certain rights, conferred in the deeds, which our solicitor has passed on.</blockquote>

If youve got the right to run services along the shared road, why dont you run the duct and cable then get BT to connect up.

If youre concerned about any backlash, do it while the neighbours are on holiday.