Removal of old cables

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Removal of old cables

aw747

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#319132 25-Mar-2025 13:53

I moved into our current property about two years ago.
House has underground fibre. Buried in the street, not using any poles.

Outside our house is a wooden pole with an old copper line on it, which goes across the road to another wooden pole, then another 100m down the road to another wooden pole, then back over an intersection to a pole, down the pole to a grey copper joiner box.

None of the cabling is on my property.

So, I contacted Chorus to see if they could send someone to remove the cable as it is unsightly and take their poles out if they wanted to reuse them (look brand new)

They were more than happy to do that, but said I would be paying for it?

Is this 'normal' practice considering the cable is within the road corridor as such?

Not looking to start a bun fight over it, just curious if that is what others have experienced.

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#3357283 25-Mar-2025 14:17

"They were more than happy to do that, but said I would be paying for it?
Is this 'normal' practice considering the cable is within the road corridor as such? "

Chorus don't have a street "beautification" budget... If you want it gone, you'll pay...

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#3357284 25-Mar-2025 14:27

wellygary: ... Chorus don't have a street "beautification" budget... If you want it gone, you'll pay...

I.m.o this is the tragedy of the commons. Internalising the profits of the company & externalising the cost to the community.
I.m.o this is the thinking of a linear economy instead of a circular economy.

Note, this is a general comment on the current & past social environment & not directed (only) at Chorus.

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Ge0rge

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#3357286 25-Mar-2025 14:35

wellygary:

"They were more than happy to do that, but said I would be paying for it?
Is this 'normal' practice considering the cable is within the road corridor as such? "

Chorus don't have a street "beautification" budget... If you want it gone, you'll pay...

I see your point in regards to "beautification", but at what point is a company responsible for it's equipment/rubbish that it no longer needs or is using. Seems a bit rough to me that Chorus (in this instance, could equally apply to any infrastructure company) get to put their gear where they want / need, and leave it there when they are done with it.

Would there be an expectation that it would be removed as part of the copper drawdown?

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3357288 25-Mar-2025 14:47

I'm not sure that reusing installed poles is advisable. Especially wooden poles.

Usually lines companies don't like removing poles if there isn't a specific reason. Removing the line/pole means that if the circuit is needed in future (particularly the case with people switching back to One's HFC network, but can apply to other networks), the pole/circuits need to be reinstated at much greater cost.

In many cases, stringing new conductors between existing poles where existing conductors run (e.g. a straight copper>fibre swap) can be done with no external/council permission. If there was a new infill build or network extension that needed fibre service, Chorus could string new fibre at minimal cost.

If you take the line down, they now need full consents, planning, and underground services marking before installing new underground or overhead assets.

Unless there's absolutely no way they'll ever be used again, it's a significant loss of network flexibility.

Are you certain none of the intermediate poles have a line going back underground? It's not uncommon for a line to go overhead in one location, over 3-4 poles, then dip back underground to the house.

Can't say I'm particularly fond of getting rid of infrastructure for beautification; that way lies NIMBYism.

aw747

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#3357303 25-Mar-2025 15:31

Yes, it is a single copper pair in black insulation.
Comes down the pole at boundary and goes nowhere :)

At a guess the property needed phone services and there must have been none left in the underground that also goes past the property.

MaxineN

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#3357304 25-Mar-2025 15:39

Where are we? This isn't passing the smell test and this is starting to sound like a HFC line, in which case Chorus will not touch it with a 10 foot pole. Downer will need what's called a drop down to tidy it up from One NZ.

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aw747

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#3357321 25-Mar-2025 16:53

Rural Woodville.
Definitely copper line (ex copper tech so I know my cables)
No HFC this far north :)

MaxineN

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#3357322 25-Mar-2025 16:54

Lovely little area. Kind of jealous :)

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larknz

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#3357333 25-Mar-2025 18:04

That's the way it is with most network companies these days, power and telecoms. Who's going to pay? Why would they want to spend money unnecessarily.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3357334 25-Mar-2025 18:07

There's also "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and a desire not to give up what's effectively an easement. If they tear the line down, they probably can't later put a different one up in its place.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3357339 25-Mar-2025 18:58

wellygary:

Chorus don't have a street "beautification" budget... If you want it gone, you'll pay...

They seem to have money to commission 'artists' to paint their redundant cabinets which they should be removing.

Those things have always been an eyesore and they are even worse with the hideous designs slapped all over them.

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#3357373 25-Mar-2025 22:50

They don't look that bad (certainly better than padmount substations) and it stops them getting tagged.

Wheelbarrow01

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#3357375 25-Mar-2025 23:21

By the second half of this year, Chorus will have served copper withdrawal notices to every copper-connected property where fibre is already available.

Notwithstanding any wash-up process required at the tail end of the programme, I would anticipate that the vast majority of fibre-available properties will have had their copper fully withdrawn by around mid 2026, at which point the copper infrastructure will start to be decommissioned and removed.

In my professional opinion, the OP can rest easy knowing that at some point from mid 2026 onwards, this problem will eventually resolve itself 😎

Removal is already starting to happen in some areas where fibre uptake is 100%. For example I live in Christchurch, and a few months ago, a bucket truck drove down my street, systematically cutting down and removing all the aerial copper cables - both in the street and attached to houses (including my house).

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

larknz

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#3357385 26-Mar-2025 07:24

That was probably the local criminals stealing the copper.

jonathan18

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#3357399 26-Mar-2025 09:03

I’ve a similar situation to the OP. Our city (PN) is the opposite of some places (looking at you, Wgtn!) with nearly no poles of any kind, whether carrying power, copper or cable. Our small street is one where there are a few poles with copper going to couple of houses (including ours), though it doesn’t even run down the full length of the street.

When the house next door was being taken away a few years back the movers simply snipped the cable and wrapped it high up the pole - and, no, they hadn’t spoken to/got permission from Chorus, which I checked with them at the time. Is there anything stopping me doing the same thing? I’d still have the pole outside, and there are a couple of other cables going from that pole onto another.

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