20 Broadband Altnets Launch New UK Network Infrastructure Sharing Venture

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK’s alternative broadband ISP networks, has announced that their efforts through the previously announced Infrastructure Sharing Group (ISG) have now resulted in the creation of a new infrastructure sharing venture – supporting the use of 500,000km of “spare fibre capacity“.

The issue of infrastructure sharing has been somewhat of a bugbear for the industry in recent years, particularly in locations where several operators may be overbuilding each other and duplicating new fibre infrastructure due to the lack of effective access to existing infrastructure.

At present Openreach (BT), as the incumbent network operator with Significant Market Power (SMP), are already required to share access to their existing cable ducts and poles via the Ofcom regulated Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product – many rival networks use this. But PIA isn’t viable in every location and the market would thus sometimes benefit from a complementary solution, which could further reduce the need for new trenching and telecoms poles etc.

Outside of PIA accessible areas, infrastructure sharing often comes down to the ability to reach commercial agreements between competitors, which is naturally problematic. Put another way, if you’ve invested significant money to deploy a new full fibre network, and you’re a smaller operator that is already taking on a lot of risk, then you’re often dis-incentivised to give rivals a free ride to use what you’ve built.

The ISG within INCA has thus been working to develop a new framework for infrastructure sharing between altnets, which is intended to complement Openreach’s PIA product. This will enable asset owners amongst the independent broadband market to commercialise the ducts, poles and dark fibre that they own by establishing a common means of sharing their infrastructure with others in the altnet sector, as well as mobile operators, datacentres, tier one carriers and hyper-scalers, who are increasingly putting out tenders for ducts to support their own operations.

Guy Miller, CEO of MS3 Networks and Chair of INCA’s ISG, said:

“We’re ready to share our infrastructure and maximise the assets we own for the benefit of our sector as well as the mobile industry and data centres who will now have access to the assets we’ve invested in to deliver gigabit capable broadband across the UK.

Pivotal to making this happen has been the establishment of an Infrastructure Sharing Framework that has put in place a common standard product definition, set of terms and conditions, and commercial and legal documents to support this new marketplace.

Not only will this venture enable asset owners to get the best ROI from their infrastructure, it also has the potential to significantly reduce the disruption that comes about from the duplication of telegraph poles and ducts. It has been estimated that there is currently some half a million kilometres of spare fibre capacity that has not previously been easily identified.

This will save Altnets money, accelerate fibre deployment across the UK and potentially reduce further need for completely new ducts and poles. It will also provide asset seekers with a cost-efficient infrastructure solution compared to investing in such assets themselves.

It also opens up a significant new market opportunity for Altnets, including a slice of the £100m backhaul market in the mobile industry. Asset owners can decide who they wish to share their infrastructure with and the commercial terms. They also have full control over access to their networks and chambers.

We acknowledge the public and government concerns sometimes about construction of new physical infrastructure, and we hope this framework will reduce the need for that, where Openreach PIA is not available.”

Asset owners and seekers can now “register free of charge” with INCA to take advantage of the new venture, which includes access to the standards and the full range of documents that support third-party use of existing fibre assets. Through INCA’s recently signed partnership with AssetHub, users will also be able to access maps that show the location of these assets.

Sadly, the announcement doesn’t include a list of the initial twenty supporting altnets (we have asked and will report back), but this is overall still a very positive move. The downside is that it would have probably had a bigger impact had it existed a few years earlier, although the existence of this venture may still allow some altnets to expand their coverage and without needing to make a huge investment into new infrastructure build.

ISPreview touched on the issue of infrastructure sharing a few times when we interviewed INCA’s CEO, Paddy Paddison, earlier this year (here).