A couple of weeks ago I checked the Spark broadband product page and discovered that, despite having registered my interest twice, UFB had become available in my street without anyone contacting me. Can't have been available for long, though, as the grass seed Chorus laid on the part of the street they dug up still hasn't grown. So I signed up straight away, fully prepared for it to be the first step in a long process.

I live on a two-dwelling cross-leased section, set back from the road at the end of a cul-de-sac. In front of my house is another two-dwelling cross-leased section. The driveway for these two houses branches off of my driveway down by the road, but they don't actually own any of it. My cross-lease owns the entire driveway right down to the street, plus a small margin on either side. When the Chorus tech came out to visit me last week, I pointed this out to him and he agreed with me that consent was probably only needed for me and my immediate neighbour, as Chorus was going to trench the cable up alongside the edge of my drive and then across it to my garden, all on my property.

However, Chorus have just emailed me the proposed plans, which include laying initial fibre connections up the side of the branching-off driveway of the other two properties (to save them having to do the work twice, I assume) and they are saying that I need consent from those houses as well. I find it unusual that I need to get consent for work I didn't ask for on an entirely separate property in order for my connection to be installed. This could be problematic as one of those properties is a rental and currently full of rather anti-social hoons, and I have no idea who the land owner is. What's also odd is that they are trying to contact my cross-lease neighbour to approve the works, even though that neighbour has already given blanket consent via the form on Chorus's website (and confirmed to me that they'd done so). What is the point of having an online consent form if people are still required to sign paperwork? Thirdly, when I spoke to the girl that called me from Chorus today (prior to her emailing me the plans) she couldn't tell me for sure whether they really actually needed consent from the two driveway-sharing neighbours or not. It all seems very peculiar. Has anyone else had this experience?

Anyway, I'm not too bothered if there's a bit of a wait - I was prepared for that. But I like to understand what's going on, and so far I'm feeling a bit puzzled by some aspects. I do have to say, I've been pleasantly surprised by the speed at which Chorus has responded to my order. It's been less than two weeks and they've already scoped the property, drawn up the plans, and are actively seeking consent. I'm just nervous the whole thing could be scuppered by the consent issue. My VDSL connection is tenuous (it's gone down about 5 times in the last 12-18 months) and since I work from home, I can't afford to be offline. I'm really looking forward to getting a more reliable connection (knock on wood).