Landowners Call for UK Government Deal on Broadband Infrastructure

The Country Land and Business Association has today pledged to work with “fibre broadband” infrastructure providers in order to agree a new wayleave deal for better access across private land, but only if the Government “proves its commitment” to improving rural broadband connectivity.

At present landowners in England and Wales are concerned (here and here) about the Government’s on-going work to revise the Electronic Communications Code (ECC) via the new Digital Economy Bill 2017, which aside from removing barriers for new broadband and mobile infrastructure could also result in them receiving lower rental income than today and having less control over their own land.

The situation has put the CLA in a tricky position. On the one hand they’re keen to act as consumer champions for the pursuit of better connectivity, yet their remit is to protect the very land that allows such connectivity to be deployed. Finding the right balance isn’t going to be easy and meanwhile operators won’t deploy into remote areas if the cost dramatically outweighs any benefit.

However the Government’s new Industrial Strategy and its related call for input on the deployment of more “full fibre” (FTTP/H) broadband infrastructure (here) is something that the CLA sees as an opportunity.

Charles Trotman, CLA Senior Business and Economics Adviser, said:

“This consultation marks a major departure from previous government policy on improving connectivity and is in line with many recommendations made by the CLA on the future of rural broadband.

We fully support the Government’s commitment to full fibre roll out to improve broadband and mobile coverage. This latest push must end the long running rural-urban divide once and for all. We are looking for government and industry to set out more specific plans that show where and when digital infrastructure will be upgraded in rural areas. We are also calling for a new marketing effort to ensure rural home and business owners are aware when new connections become available.

If the Government follows through on the commitment it is setting out, the CLA is prepared to work with the industry to negotiate an overarching wayleave agreement between landowners and infrastructure providers for access to deliver a network of underground fixed lines. Such a deal has the potential to dramatically advance broadband provision in rural areas.”

A wayleave agreement represents a legal written consent, which allows infrastructure providers access to carry out work on privately owned land. The industry has already done a lot of work to develop a more standardised approach, but high rental costs and the loss of control over land is still quite a big bugbear to overcome.

Interestingly the CLA doesn’t spell out precisely what sort of plan would be enough to meet their requirements, although their recent Rural Business 2030 report did offer a few hints (see below). Clearly they want a bit more than the proposed 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the Broadband Delivery UK programme’s existing commitment to make “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) available to 97% of premises by 2020.

CLA Rural Business 2030 Report

Deliver universal mobile coverage – place stringent conditions on mobile operators as part of tenders for the 700mhz spectrum auction taking place in 2018 to ensure maximum mobile data coverage in rural areas.

Promote new approaches to funding connections for the most remote communities – build on existing best practice in encouraging home and business owners in a location outside of the reach of broadband roll out schemes to pool vouchers in a way that will fund a better, more robust solution for the whole community. In order to help businesses to decide whether to consider co-financing projects, BT Openreach and other providers must be more transparent and long term in setting out their roll out plans.

Ensure local businesses can become internet suppliers – encourage rural business owners who invest in putting in place their own broadband connection such as fibre-to-premises to become local suppliers using technologies such as local wi-fi networks and ensure their position in the market is secure.

Establish new investment models for better connections – explore new models for rural businesses to invest in fibre connections for their own premises, the mobile network providers should be encouraged to rent these connections to help them build their data networks (especially under 5G).