Private Roads Hamper CityFibre’s FTTP Broadband Rollout in Glasgow

The Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Eastwood, Jackson Carlaw, has warned of “serious uncertainty” over the ability of some areas in the City of Glasgow, which have been held up for years by the owners of private roads, to be connected to CityFibre’s new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) UK broadband ISP network.

In case anybody has forgotten. CityFibre is currently investing around £270 million to expand their full fibre network across the city, which at the last update in 2023 was still due to be “substantially completed” by the end of 2025. But some areas often get left until after the main deployment, and one of the most common reasons for this stems from the issue of private or unadopted roads.

Quite a few local estates and lanes fall into this bracket, which in the case of Glasgow is, for example, impacting local homes in the associated town of Giffnock at Egidia Avenue, Eglinton Drive, Winton Avenue, Arran Drive, Berryhill Road leading to Maryville Avenue and two blocks of flats at Hutchison Court etc.

Local MSP Jackson Carlaw told the Glasgow Times that the “ongoing absence of the upgrades means they are continually experiencing poor internet connection and with significant dismay that the rollout is yet to reach their home“. The MSP added that CityFibre’s most recent correspondence suggested that there is now “serious uncertainty about whether the streets will be connected” and he has thus complained about this to the operator, but it may not be entirely their fault.

A CityFibre spokesperson said:

“Our teams have worked hard and brought full fibre broadband to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Glasgow, Clydebank and Renfrewshire over the past few years and we continue to work through the operational and commercial detail of any further rollout plan to ensure it can deliver what local people need.”

Sadly, the issue with gaining permission to access unadopted roads (i.e. private roads, which are not maintained by a public authority) is not a new one, with many network operators across the UK running into similar challenges. Broadband builders typically need to secure a legal access (wayleave) style agreement, which isn’t always an easy, quick or economically viable process (although it’s easier than it was in the past).

The network operator first has to figure out who owns the road (historic ownership changes etc. can complicate things), then they need to make contact (details not always reliable) and, finally, come to an agreement – all of which may present challenges. The owners of such roads, assuming you can reach them, will naturally also have concerns (damage etc.) or may not want new infrastructure. In addition, they can sometimes also make unreasonable demands for payment, obstructing deployment.

CityFibre and similar operators can raise disputes over this, but sometimes the number of premises involved is so small as to simply make it not worth the cost /effort (i.e. the rollout becomes unviable). In that sense, the MSP might be more effective if he also put some pressure on the owners of such roads, while the residents could play their part by petitioning the property/landowner to allow access – assuming they can actually contact them.