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The House of Commons Library within the UK Parliament has published a useful new document that helps to summarise and explain some of the core rules around the deployment of poles (telegraph poles) for broadband network expansion. In recent years, these have often become a point of some contention for communities that don’t want them.
The deployment of poles (usually made of wood, but sometimes also metal) to run new overhead fibre optic or copper cables is a common practice across the UK (over 4 million already exist). This is because poles are quick and cost-effective to build (several times cheaper than trenching), can be deployed in areas where there may be no space or access agreement to safely put new underground cables, are less disruptive (avoiding the noise, access restrictions and damage to pavements of street works) and can usually be built under Permitted Development (PD) rights.
However, a lot of people find them ugly, particularly when deployed in areas that haven’t had them before, which over the past few years has – in some parts of the country (often areas that have previously only had underground infrastructure) – triggered strong anti-pole protests.
The new Labour-led UK government, much like the old Conservative-led one, last year responded to this by calling on broadband operators to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), to “share existing infrastructure when installing broadband cables as the default approach” and pledged to “revise” existing guidance.
The industry recently responded to this by introducing new ‘Best Practice Guidance for Poles’ to help tackle the problem, which generally requires network operators to have greater engagement with and respect for community wishes. The government are currently assessing the impact of that before deciding whether further action may be required. But it should be noted that many operators have since had to scale-back their fibre deployments due to wider economic and competitive pressures (i.e. there are now fewer complaints being raised).
Nevertheless, Thinkbroadband has spotted that the House of Commons Library just published a new document, which is designed to help MPs understand the rules around telegraph poles for UK broadband providers and any relevant legislation. The information doesn’t say anything that regular readers of ISPreview won’t already know, but it does serve as quite a useful summary for those who may be seeking some extra background.
Broadband companies and telegraph poles
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/broadband-companies-and-telegraph-poles/