Cabling on driveway splitting

[Sunnysideoflife]

 

 

Hi I have been with sky for several years.  The cabling comes across the driveway to the house, it was never laid very well just under the gravel, not dug down.  Despite best attempts to keep it covered with cars and vans going over, it now shows signs of splitting.  The rubber is intact but the smaller rubber cable has slpit away ( they were both joined if that makes sense). I am concerned that this will become a safety issue with traffic going across all the time and also it's a trip hazzard.  I cannot dig it in easily to cover it as it is concrete below the gravel. Is this something I should be concerned about and will sky be able to help, or is this open reach.  My neighbours all have sky and their cables are not draped acros their driveways.  Many thanks .

[TimmyBGood]

@Sunnysideoflife 

Unless that cable has a satellite dish at one end and a television box at the other, it's not a 'Sky cable' (and even if it does the cabling becomes the property and responsibility of the subscriber upon installation, with a 12 month warranty from Sky).

Could you elaborate on what it is and why it's there?  Such an installation would be somewhat unusual for television and very unlikely for telecoms.

[Sunnysideoflife]

@TimmyBGoodmany thanks for the reply, I assumed it was to do with the broadband, I have phone, tv and broadband all from sky.  Let me see if I can take some pics in the daylight tomorrow as to where it enters the house.  I always assumed it was to do with sky but maybe this is from when previous occupants had Virgin ?  Apologies for my ignorance.  

[TimmyBGood]

@Sunnysideoflife 

No problem.  Sky, like most ISPs, uses Openreach infrastructure (including cabling) to deliver broadband and voice call services, but that would be very unusual for an Openreach cable: they are typically very strict on ducting all the way to an external wall at the address.  Certainly possible it's a legacy cable television coaxial feed with an adjacent private phone cable, perhaps from Telewest/NTL prior to Virgin absorbing both: if that's the case you'd expect them to end up at a pair of boxes branded by one of those companies somewhere indoors.

[Sunnysideoflife]

@TimmyBGood 

Many thanks, I traced the cable to a Brien Virgin box in the outside of the wall, it looks like there is also a BT cable going into that box as well from a small BT box further along the wall. I have a an open reach box with a sky marked device on it and a Virgin box right next to it but I cannot see that they have separate entry points they all look to go via the Virgin box.  

[Sunnysideoflife]

 

 

@TimmyBGood 

 

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

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@Sunnysideoflife wrote:

 

 

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I'd say that Virgin cable on the right is the same as the one exposed on your drive.  As I mentioned, Openreach typically have much higher standards than that installation appears to be, and just wouldn't run their infrastructure that way.

[Sunnysideoflife]

@TimmyBGood 

Thank you for all the help.  I will speak to Virgin and see if they can remove the cable.  

[Mr+Slant]

Virgin won't deal with that unless you are an existing customer. The cable on your property is your responsibility (if you're not an existing customer) as far as they are concerned.

Edit - oh and the very best of luck in "talking" to anyone in Virgin apart from sales if you're not an existing customer; it'll probably take you several hours on hold before someone "transfers you" (ie hangs up).

[TimmyBGood]

@Sunnysideoflife 

I suspect they usually won't do so, but if you emphasize it's a trip hazard then their lawyers would probably insist.

[Mr+Slant]

@TimmyBGood 

Unfortunately not. There is no USO on Virgin so its classed as private infrastructure - ie the owner of the property is legally responsible, not Virgin. That's why many of their installs are shambolic to say the least.

[Sunnysideoflife]

@Mr+Slant 

Virgin removed the offending cable today  🙂