Redundant self-burying cable

[Burnymill]

With our FTTP installed, the old self-burying cable (which I've disconnected from the house) is now redundant.  I've extracted a short length from the house already, I could probably retrieve more from my property (up to circa 60 metres) depending on how well buried it has become.  Should I contact OR for their approval (and if so - how), or do I presume they won't object to my recovering and recycling it?

[36ULW]

Why do you need it digging up and removing?

Just leave it there for some future Archeologist to find it.

[Burnymill]

Good point - but I'm sure it can be recycled.  Also, not all is buried - there is a coil of it tied to a fence post which looks unsightly.   There will be plenty left for archaeologists to find - over 2k from our house, with numerous repairs over the years.  Almost every time the verges were mowed, our cable would be cut.  Some stretches were damaged so frequently that the cable was put overhead or properly buried.  Hopefully the optic cable is less vulnerable!

[36ULW]

Recycle it. They’ll probably be about £1.23 worth of Copper in it. 

I can assure you, Openreach will have zero interest in recovering it as the cost of any recovery will far out cost the little to no value that cable will have.

If you want to pull it out though knock yourself out.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

If your copper pair service was a buried cable ( not sure what a self burying cable is , presumably you mean a DIG ( direct in ground ) cable ) , and you now have FTTP , what method was used to provide the FTTP , another buried cable , overhead via poles , ducted ?
Even when OR start to recover redundant copper cables in earnest, individual cables from the DP to customers are not likely to be recovered, ( 1 to 5 pair cables ) the expense of recovery likely more than the value of the cable recovered, it’s large multi pair cables , between exchanges and exchanges and cabinets that will return some value due to the scrap value of the copper …so if you did recover the cable , no one would subsequently come looking for it , recycling is good for the environment, but your ‘cable’ won’t have any real ‘scrap’ value

[chrisjp]

When Openreach run a new fibre optic cable to the house using poles and overhead they typically use the same route as the old overhead copper cable, but they leave the copper cable in place, even though it would be a simple job to remove it while they were "up the poles". For areas with overhead cables I fear we are increasingly going to get unsightly double cables going to every house as FTTP is progressively installed

[iniltous]

Not sure that’s particularly common , as stated by an OR tech on another post , copper dropwires may have been left in situ in the past , as some earlier situations  the copper pair was still required for telephony but that’s not likely to be the case now , but assuming the FTTP cable is from the same ‘pole’ that the existing copper dropwire is from , and is connected at the house to the same fixing ( attachment ) it’s hardly an imposition for the technician to remove the copper dropwire while providing the new optical cable.

This situation of multiple wires may arise , when an Alt Net is using the same pole, they  put up their own wire but they have no reason to touch the existing Openreach cable , so some addresses will have more that one dropwire , it’s conceivable that if 2 alt nets use PIA at the same location a single property could have 3 dropwires , 3 CSP and 3 ONT , if they at some point used all three networks, that’s just a consequence of the way the Government  allowed the industry to proliferate.

[36ULW]

With the 100+ Alt Nets out there now soon the streets of the U.K. will resemble that of places like India and Nepal, even if they recover the Copper Drop Wires.

Just remember though, this is what the public and OFCOM wanted. So it’s a British Public and OFCOM Problem, not a BT/Openreach.

[Burnymill]

Many thanks to all for responses.  @iniltous , yes I probably mean DIG.  This cable came right to the house, no ducting or poles (old overhead cables and poles long gone).  The FTTP is largely ducted, with poles in the small village (one main street) and a cluster of houses on the outskirts.  After that it's ducted (with poles at road and stream crossings)  for about 2k to the next house above us.  From that house, its ducted again, on the verge beside the unclassified road. The final stretch to us (and 2 neighbours) up a gravel track is 400m long, requiring 4 cabinets (in the ground) and 2 poles.  The cost must be enormous - our neighbours have not installed it so far!  Photo shows the machine used for the ducting.