BT excess construction charge!!

[grober]

A friend who is building a new house a couple of hundred yards from a main road has just been informed by the OPENREACH section of BT they propose to charge him £4,500 for providing a telephone line to his house. Needless to say he needed a stiff drink after hearing the news. They describe this as Excess Construction Charges set out here. http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/pricing/cpp/downloads/ORPLCOM_EXCESS.htm
Presumably this covers the cost of running a line from the road to a suitable point in the house and may involve laying and burying the line. Has anyone experience of this and are there any work-arounds. He is willing and able ( has a JCB ) to lay the cable from the house to the road but at the moment it would appear BT want to do the entire job. There is mention of an Exemption up to £3,500 on the cost under some circumstances but its not obvious what these are. Can any Telecoms guys on the forum shed any light on this one? thanks

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

It's a long time since I experienced this but I was quoted over £2000 to install a line to a construction site in the 1980s for the same reason.

I reduced the cost by getting my own guys to dig a trench from a BT box on the nearest road to the site and install two telephone cable ducts with draw wires (actually plastic string). It had to be two ducts. I don't know why.

All the work was done to BT standards with the correct width and depth of tranch, and the correct ducts, bedding material, surround and backfill. BT then came along and installed their cable into one of "my" ducts using the draw wire. The cost was much reduced.

If your friend asks BT I am sure they will have a standard specification for doing the work, then he can get quotes from local groundwork contractors. This sort of job is bread and butter to them.

 

[Dryce]

A friend who is building a new house a couple of hundred yards from a main road has just been informed by the OPENREACH section of BT they propose to charge him £4,500 for providing a telephone line to his house.

Has he considered not installing a phone?

Seriously - if he has decent 3G and voice GSM reception and his data needs aren't too great then it may more viable than the landline cost.

 

[MBManInKen]

Bets thing to do is to contact Ofcom's consumer contact centre. Ofcom regulate the telecom sector. There are rules BT (as the USO provider) has to follow before they can impose such excess charges and the excess is capped (although I think the cap is around the 3.5K figure).

According to Ofcom, BT only charged 24 residential customers more than the standard fee for the year April 2003-March 2004, which suggests to me that such an excess is really highly unusual.

Ofcom should be well placed to advise you on whether or not BT can apply an excess charge in your case and how much.

 

[poppypiesdad]

I was quoted by scottish power £12000 for a electricty connection to the stables
The overhead lines cross our land
Talked to the area engineer and he told me if i dug the trench layed the cable (supplied by them ) and back filled trench The price would drop

So i did this (they inspected before backfilling) and the price dropped to £6500
So talk to them i know its B.T. its good to talk


And try here http://www.burdens.co.uk/
for ducting ,draw cord ,inspection pits, etc
good company and helpfull information


just a quick thought the main b.t . cable may be at capacity and they need to put another one from the last node down to the house location



popps

 

[grober]

Bets thing to do is to contact Ofcom's consumer contact centre. Ofcom regulate the telecom sector. There are rules BT (as the USO provider) has to follow before they can impose such excess charges and the excess is capped (although I think the cap is around the 3.5K figure).

According to Ofcom, BT only charged 24 residential customers more than the standard fee for the year April 2003-March 2004, which suggests to me that such an excess is really highly unusual.

Ofcom should be well placed to advise you on whether or not BT can apply an excess charge in your case and how much.

One of the problems my friend mentioned was that recently BT have split off their line installation section as separate group --the so called OPENREACH---maybe they are starting to flex their fiscal muscles to generate more income? The OFCOM route is certainly worth pursuing tho thanks .

 

[grober]

I was quoted by scottish power £12000 for a electricty connection to the stables
The overhead lines cross our land
Talked to the area engineer and he told me if i dug the trench layed the cable (supplied by them ) and back filled trench The price would drop

So i did this (they inspected before backfilling) and the price dropped to £6500
So talk to them i know its B.T. its good to talk


And try here http://www.burdens.co.uk/
for ducting ,draw cord ,inspection pits, etc
good company and helpfull information


just a quick thought the main b.t . cable may be at capacity and they need to put another one from the last node down to the house location



popps

That was something that occurred to me too. He is due to talk further with them in the next few days but is finding it difficult to speak to anyone in OPENREACH who is knowledgeable enough/ can speak authoritatively about the issues involved in his case. At present he has only a total figure without any breakdown on the costs involved. He really needs to get a hold of an experienced field engineer but is finding this difficult so far.

 

[MBManInKen]

One of the problems my friend mentioned was that recently BT have split off their line installation section as separate group --the so called OPENREACH---maybe they are starting to flex their fiscal muscles to generate more income? The OFCOM route is certainly worth pursuing tho thanks .

The split up of BT was actually a legal requirement as part of the transition from a monopoly market to a competitive free market. I won't bore you with the details .

 

[Mudster]

Not sure if this is relevant but we had a similar thing on our business park recently when a new firm moved in.

BT wanted to the charge them (not sure how much but t was thousands not hundreds) to install a new line. However once two individual customers require lines they are obliged to provide the lines at their expense.

The charge only comes into force when it is a single individual line.

 

[Stratman]

Has he explored the cable TV option?

That usually comes with phone and interweb these days.

 

[grober]

"Has he explored the cable TV option?
That usually comes with phone and interweb these days."

He's nowhere near any cable network, so BT OPEN REACH is the only option.

"The split up of BT was actually a legal requirement as part of the transition from a monopoly market to a competitive free market. I won't bore you with the details"
I understand it was do with Local Loop Unbundling /ISP's and wholesale line prices etc in the name of competition. However BT were clever enough to retain a monopoly on everything downstream of the exchange so there is no effective competition in that area[cable excepted] no matter who provides your telephone or internet services. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openreach While I understand that there are good engineering arguments for this, it is an area which should be efficiently regulated to prevent unfair exploitation of a what is essentially a monopoly situation.

 

[MBManInKen]

I wasn't saying I agree with the way BT was split up or with all of Ofcom's wider policies - I was just pointing out why they had been split up as part of the creation of a freed up market in Europe .

As for Openwretch, I still think you should give Ofcom a call to at least find out what your exact legal position and rights are.

The EU framework for electronic communications is currently being reviewed, BTW.

 

[grober]

Fair point. I will wait to hear how my friend got on in his negotiations with OPEN REACH. Thanks to everyone who responded to my request-watch this space.

 

[poppypiesdad]

Try to grab a hold of a bt van working in the local area and ask the engineer for the area engineers name and contact and try to speak to him directly(yes i know it will be hard ) and keep away from the call centers who havent got a clue on more technical matters

btw where in perthshire it it as ive got a contact within b.t. engineering

 

[grober]

Try to grab a hold of a bt van working in the local area and ask the engineer for the area engineers name and contact and try to speak to him directly(yes i know it will be hard ) and keep away from the call centers who havent got a clue on more technical matters

btw where in perthshire it it as ive got a contact within b.t. engineering

I will pass on your suggestion to my friend. Unfortunately its in the wilds of Aberdeenshire my friend lives, but appreciate the offer.

 

[robert.saunders]

Where's Reflexboy when you need him

 

[rf065]

This is a widespread problem, not just with BT, but all the utilities.
In the past, when they all had a monopoly, BT, GAS, Electric etc, would put pipes or cables in for free or below actual cost. The money would be recouped over time through your bills.

Since the goverment decided to split the utilities up and give the consumer more choice, no utility company is going to spend it's own money giving anyone a supply when they can move to another provider at any time. They will never recoup their costs. Thats why the charges are now so high.

Russ

 

[merc man]

ok this might not be the best choice but try and get hold of a gas contractor, they have a little machine called a mole or something like that, when they had to change my gas supply line they just dug a hole on the other side of the road and then done a trace with a machine on the top of the road as a guide for the mole and then just pluged the machine in to the van and let it run it took about 3/4 hours but it ended up on the other side of the road and no trench digging or road closure was required, they then put the yellow pipe through the hole and connected it all up, another lorry came along took the rubble refilled the road and done!

there might be a better solution but just a thought.

 

[rf065]

ok this might not be the best choice but try and get hold of a gas contractor, they have a little machine called a mole or something like that, when they had to change my gas supply line they just dug a hole on the other side of the road and then done a trace with a machine on the top of the road as a guide for the mole and then just pluged the machine in to the van and let it run it took about 3/4 hours but it ended up on the other side of the road and no trench digging or road closure was required, they then put the yellow pipe through the hole and connected it all up, another lorry came along took the rubble refilled the road and done!

there might be a better solution but just a thought.

BT will want their cable in a plastic duct. Moling will not be an option.
What you would need is a jet track machine, much more costly.

Russ

 

[MBManInKen]

no utility company is going to spend it's own money giving anyone a supply when they can move to another provider at any time. They will never recoup their costs. Thats why the charges are now so high.

That's why the networks remain separate, and have been forced to be split from the service providers themselves. Also, companies are generally not allowed to charge whatever they want, this is exactly why there is regulation/legislation in place and why universal service obligations exist.