Telecoms Industry Commands 46% of Searches for UK Digging Work

The LSBUD (Line Search Before You Dig) organisation, which provides an online asset search facility to UK civil engineering firms for underground pipes and cables, has published their annual Digging Up Britain 2023 report and revealed that telecoms remained the most active industry when it comes to searching before digging.

The report notes that, during 2022, the number of search enquires that passed through LSBUD’s portal reached 3.75 million (up from 3.4m last year) and, thanks to the roll-out of new mobile and full fibre broadband infrastructure, telecoms has remained the dominant industry in need of detailed underground mapping, amassing a total of 1,724,998 searches (up from 1.2m) – closely followed by Water on 1,032,328 enquiries (up from 914,886).

As a result, when looking at the total number of enquiries, the telecoms share increased in 2022 to 46%, up from 44% in 2021. The telecoms and water sectors, combined, thus make up 71% of total searches in the UK. Elsewhere, the number of searches made by private individuals also increased by 39,172, which is a 24% leap.

Richard Broome, MD at LSBUD, said: “It is wonderful to witness such an increase in searches, and those within the telecoms sector have played a pivotal role in helping reach these heights. What’s particularly exciting is to see safe digging being embraced for every type of project, large and small. The industry really seems to have got the message that they need to search before they dig.“