Toob could if the wanted ( and may already do so in various anyway ) use Openreach ducts , joint boxes and poles under PIA , it’s not the same with Virgin Media, no one apart from Virgin are allowed to use Virgin ducts and footway boxes , they are not obligated to allow it , so no surprise, they don’t .
If Toob are installing their own poles in an area that is currently served underground there are a few possibilities, one is they don’t want to pay the PIA access charges ( even though it’s a peppercorn fee ) , but it’s more likely the area may have underground cables , but ( especially if the housing was built in the 60’s through to the late 80’s ) these cables are not all in ducts , they are direct in the ground , especially the individual cables to each property, so if Toob were to keep their network underground, they would have to install their own ducts to each property , this is very expensive, a pole can service lots of addresses a lot cheaper, so it’s a no brainier from a cost point of view .
Openreach cannot not go down this route , ( put up poles in an underground area ) without extensive consultation with residents and the local authority, and generally don’t try to do this , but other network providers seem to play by their own rules .
