Dealing with the 'spider web' of suspended telecommunication cables and power grids

The integration of urban beautification, construction of pedestrian streets, and undergrounding of telecommunication and power cables on Nguyen Van Cu Street, Vinh City has 'liberated' the overhead power line system. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Currently, several major streets in Vinh City such as Lenin Avenue, Le Hong Phong Street, Truong Thi Street, Cao Thang Night Street or the pedestrian street area on Ho Tung Mau and Nguyen Van Cu Streets have been invested with tens of billions of VND to bury telecommunication cables and power lines under the sidewalks.

Similarly, when investing in and upgrading key routes, Hoang Mai town or Cua Lo town also required units to have plans to bury cables and not automatically use cables hanging from electric poles as before.

The above work contributes positively to the goal of urban beautification, ensuring safety for people when entering the rainy and stormy season; at the same time, saving maintenance costs for electricity and telecommunications service providers, limiting the phenomenon of short circuits and power outages due to objective reasons.

Binh Minh Street, Cua Lo town is well planned so the telecommunication and power cable systems were laid underground right from the time the sidewalk was constructed. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In fact, the plan to bury telecommunication and power cable systems was approved by the Provincial People's Committee in 2015, but due to limited resources and the lack of investment interest from telecommunication and power companies, the implementation progress was quite slow and the results were modest.

In order to address the shortcomings, insecurity and aesthetic loss caused by the situation of electric cables and telecommunication cables hanging like spider webs all over the roads and houses, on September 15, 2022, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Decision 2790/QD-UBND approving the Plan to underground and renovate the telecommunication cable network in 2022, 2023 to 2025 for a number of key projects in the province.

Construction of underground cable pipes shared by network operators along the sidewalk of Le Nin Avenue, Hung Phuc Ward, Vinh City in early January 2023. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Also in this decision, the Provincial People's Committee requires units to organize undergrounding of cable lines through the shared use of existing underground sewer infrastructure or to build new ones, install additional underground sewer lines and underground cables; some routes cannot be completely undergrounded to the cable box and cabinet but must continue to hang cables, so a part of the capacity must be lowered to lower the cable load for the pole line, contributing to the cable car decoration.

Implementing the above regulations, since June 2022, a number of telecommunications units have coordinated with residential areas to cut off the signal lines leading to each customer's household subscriber, which were as tangled as a spider web before, but have now been replaced by a common line system following the building's design; a number of other units, along with investing in switching to new generation cables, have buried the cable system underground... Most recently, VNPT Nghe An has constructed an underground cable tank system running parallel to the drainage system along the sidewalk of Le Nin Avenue.

Construction of traffic light system and lighting system on Vinh-Cua Lo Avenue through Nghi Duc commune. Photo: Nguyen Hai

However, with the current situation of tens of thousands of kilometers of telecommunication cables running along the electric pole system and the unsystematic infrastructure planning, the goal of undergrounding the suspended cable system faces many challenges.

Recently, when Vinh city had a plan to renovate the urban area, upgrade the night street and pedestrian street, it was very difficult to mobilize and call on telecommunications or electricity companies to invest and cooperate in construction. Although the planning orientation of each street was clear, the situation was that as soon as one unit finished the drainage ditch, sidewalk, and lighting, other units came to ask for permission to dig up the road, dig up the sidewalk to install cable equipment...

Electricity and telecommunication cables are lying around in a residential area behind the Vietnam-Korea Industrial Technical College, Nghi Phu Commune, Vinh City. Photo: Nguyen Hai

According to the roadmap, telecommunications enterprises such as Viettel, VNPT, Mobiphone or FPT will sooner or later have to invest in infrastructure to provide services, but due to lack of coordination, each person does it on their own, causing waste of space resources.

In fact, every day in residential areas or on roads, it is not difficult to realize that the infrastructure of cable lines changes continuously, but telecommunications units do not collect them but leave them on electric poles or throw them away right on the rooftops of high-rise buildings, making the already heavy lines even heavier; the buildings are unsanitary and unsafe during rain and storms.

A telecommunication cable line falls down, blocking the path of a household in hamlet 6, Quynh Hong commune, Quynh Luu district. Photo courtesy of Thanh Nhan reporter

According to a telecommunications company, one of the biggest challenges in underground cable installation is capital investment. Because of the new generation of cable systems, the initial investment cost is quite expensive. If the underground cable system and technical boxes are built along the sidewalk, the investment cost is quite large because the land must be cleared. This infrastructure is best invested by the State and then leased to businesses.

An electric pole in Trung Do ward collapsed due to not being able to bear the cable load, endangering people. Photo courtesy of Nghe An Newspaper

Mr. Nguyen Viet Duc - Head of the Vinh City Urban Management Department said: Undergrounding cable systems brings many benefits and is a trend of civilized and smart cities. Along with the proposal to continue undergrounding cables on the streets, the city is having to strengthen supervision and management so that the underground routes are not re-encroached and cables are not hung again.