Ofcom UK fines IX Wireless £7,500 over visual impact of 15m high broadband pole

The UK telecoms regulator has today imposed a fine of £7,500 on wireless broadband operator IX Wireless (Opus Broadband). The ruling came after Ofcom found that the company had brokeen its rules by failing in its duty to minimise the visual impact of a 15-metre tall metal mast / pole, when it was installed in Rochdale all the way back in 2023.

Just to recap. IX Wireless originally held an aspiration to cover 250,000 UK premises with their new broadband network (here), which primarily involved deploying a hybrid fibre optic and fixed wireless broadband (FWA) network across several towns in the North West of England, such as Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Nelson, Accrington, Thornton-Cleveleys, Fleetwood, Blackpool, Tameside and Oldham etc. Some FTTP has also been built.

However, the “up to” 15-metre-high metal poles that they build haven’t always gone down well with local residents in some of these areas (people often highlight their negative visual appearance), although in fairness they only need to deploy a smaller number of these in order to cover a wide area.

Suffice to say that their deployments sometimes attracted complaints, which back in May 2025 resulted in Ofcom launching an investigation into just one of their deployments in Rochdale (here). The final decision in this case has today been published, which sees IXW being fined £7,500 for “failing, so far as reasonably practicable, to minimise the impact on visual amenity of properties“.

Ofcom Statement on IXW Case no.1

Specifically, we have found that at the time of installation IXW had not decided whether the Apparatus would deliver GPON [FTTP], wireless network access, or both, and did not consider the impact of this on visual amenity. This led to the installation of Apparatus which had a greater impact on visual amenity than was necessary, resulting in a contravention of Regulation 3(3)(a).

As a result, we are imposing a financial penalty of £7,500 on IXW. This penalty was set having regard to the statutory limit of £10,000 per contravention, as well as our Penalty Guidelines and reflects several factors. This includes that Ofcom considers this to be a serious breach of Regulation 3(3)(a), in particular due to: (i) the potential harm caused to residents local to the Site; and (ii) the duration the Apparatus was in place for and that, for the majority of this period, IXW knew that the Apparatus would not be providing a wireless service.

The fine is fairly small, although the case did only concern a single pole. On the other hand, Ofcom have now set somewhat of a precedent, although it’s worth noting that cases like this remain extremely rare and so we don’t expect there to be a sudden surge of similar cases. The regulator’s powers in this area also remain quite limited (here). Still, network operators will no doubt pay close attention to the regulator’s reasoning, so as to avoid the same issue.

In addition, Ofcom is still running a second investigation into the same network operator, albeit for a different reason. The second probe is examining whether IXW complied with requirements to ensure that lines installed over the carriageway of a maintainable highway are placed at least 5.5 metres above the surface of the road (here). The latest update to that case has provisionally found that IXW may have breached the rules there too, but a final decision isn’t currently expected until next year.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the ISPA and INCA last year published new ‘Best Practice Guidance’ for gigabit broadband operators who are building new poles as part of their UK network expansions. The guidance aims to support the Government’s goal of “ending the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), not least by requiring providers to engage more closely with communities before they build.