What's made you grumpy today?

[pxr5]

Jesus Fishy that's some story - sounds awful. I'm seeing more and more complaints from people online who get home and find a pole stuck outside their house. It'd be tempting to just knock it down, but I imagine the consequences would be severe. Luckily (or not) all our cabling in underground here - we've still got the OR problems to come yet after finally (hopefully) getting an order in.

[Fishy]

Blimey... he sounds like a keeper...

[David L]

As a company that provides an (essential) service using overhead distribution, I believe BT/Openreach do have certain rights to provide overhead wires across private property. This was sometimes referred to as 'flying rights'. The same rights would be afforded to electricity supply companies. However, it seems that the company have always been reluctant to enforce this. Probably, in this age of social media, they have one-eye on negative press.
Other companies now have permission to use Openreach poles to supply customers (at a cost) so even if you decide to be supplied by another company you may still be fed with an overhead feed.
The reason is cost, full stop. They used to say that underground cable was six-times the cost of overhead. When I built my place, I laid duct out to the buried cable that fed the poles in the street. The cable was intercepted in a small footway box and this meant I avoided an overhead feed fixed to the gable-end of the bungalow. I had the neatest phone feed in the street. It helped that I worked for BT though! 

[pxr5]

Here are few moaners from the subreddit compoface - it's a laugh looking at https://www.reddit.com/r/compoface/ , there are some great ones, but here are a few comms-type ones:

https://www.reddit.com/r/compoface/comments/1dmmt4i/they_should_never_have_erected_this_pole_compoface/#
https://www.reddit.com/r/compoface/comments/1er0xky/5g_mast_compoface/
https://www.reddit.com/r/compoface/comments/1ewtvt6/street_in_bath_ruined_by_eyesore_virgin_media/

[Fishy]

Hope the police find  other non dead wrongdoers involved with this Mohamed Al Fayed bastard