{"id":43194,"date":"2025-09-23T22:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T21:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=43194"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:37:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:37:04","slug":"fibrus-founder-claims-outdated-rules-force-uk-taxpayers-to-fund-rural-broadband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/09\/fibrus-founder-claims-outdated-rules-force-uk-taxpayers-to-fund-rural-broadband.html","title":{"rendered":"Fibrus Founder Claims Outdated Rules Force UK Taxpayers to Fund Rural Broadband"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Co-Founder and Chairman of alternative rural broadband ISP Fibrus<\/a>, Conal Henry, will tomorrow tell the Connected Britain event that Government subsidies (e.g. the \u00a35bn Project Gigabit programme) are being “wasted<\/em>” due to Ofcom<\/a>\u2019s rules allegedly making the roll-out of rural broadband “unnecessarily expensive<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

At present Fibrus<\/a> has already deployed their own gigabit-capable broadband network, using full fibre (FTTP<\/a>) technology, to cover 440,000 premises across poorly served parts of Northern Ireland and Cumbria (England). The operator has also connected 125,000 customers to this network (up from 113k in March 2025). Most of that build has stemmed from commercial investment, but a big chunk has also come via state aid (public funding) – see below.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Fibrus<\/a> is backed by a total investment of around \u00a3893m, including \u00a3320m of committed debt, \u00a3200m in current and committed equity funding and \u00a3373m of government funding (e.g. \u00a323m FFNI, \u00a3200m Project Stratum<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 81,000+ premises in N.Ireland \u2013 and the c.\u00a3150m Project Gigabit contract for 53,500 premises in Cumbria \u2013 Hyperfast GB<\/strong><\/a>).<\/div>\n

However, Henry argues that such deployments are currently being hampered by the rules and costs of harnessing the Physical Infrastructure Access<\/strong> (PIA) product, which is the regulated service that allows rival networks to run their own fibre via Openreach<\/a>’s existing cable ducts and poles \u2013 cutting down on build costs, disruption and speeding up deployments of gigabit-capable broadband networks.<\/p>\n

Openreach<\/a> has previously described their PIA product as being \u201ccheap as chips<\/em>\u201c, \u201creally successful<\/em>\u201d (175 network builders are using their ducts and poles) and said it returns \u201cvery strong customer satisfaction scores<\/em>\u201c. But Henry argues that a change to PIA pricing would reduce the need for funding and could speed up regional roll-outs further.<\/p>\n

What’s the issue with PIA?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

According to Henry, under the current system, altnets such as Fibrus must pay for the use on a per-metre basis, which he claims is “disproportionately impacting rural areas<\/em>“. Rural properties are on average 200m away from their nearest neighbour, compared to just 10m in urban areas. As a result, Henry says it can cost altnets “almost twenty times more<\/em>” to roll-out FTTP<\/a> to rural areas than in towns and cities (we’ve heard this before<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The current rules are also said to “prevent altnets from recovering these costs from consumers<\/em>“, although this aspect wasn’t fleshed out in the press release. Henry added that rural areas are also more likely to have slower broadband speeds, and fewer providers to choose from, partly as a result of the issues raised.<\/p>\n

We should add that other altnets have previously also called on Ofcom<\/a> to deliver fairness in PIA pricing, to \u201censure all users of PIA have a level playing field for access to infrastructure<\/em>\u201c (here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Conal Henry is expected to say: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies like Fibrus have a strong track record of delivering rural broadband but the current model is stifling investment, creating an uneven marketplace and making it harder for providers like ours to connect more homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

The disproportionate impact these costs have on rural broadband providers is well illustrated by the fact that Fibrus serves 0.3% of total UK broadband premises but it contributes 12% of Openreach<\/a>\u2019s altnet PIA income \u2013 a staggering figure. This directly undermines the UK\u2019s goal of nationwide fibre coverage and inhibits growth.<\/p>\n

Both Ministers and Ofcom<\/a> can get on and solve this. Doing so would mean Ministers spend less on subsidy and consumers have more choice. In an age of online working and accessing learning, business and healthcare online, it\u2019s vital that Ministers get a grip on this issue or rural communities will be left behind.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fairness, the fact that rural builds cost significantly more than urban ones is nothing new, and it\u2019s worth bearing in mind that Openreach will also suffer that impact when they build the infrastructure (they need to gain a fair return on their investment for it to be viable). The incumbent is not magically immune to the realities of rural deployments being disproportionately more expensive than urban ones. This is partly because there are fewer premises to reach, and they’re often dispersed over a much wider area of difficult terrain.<\/p>\n

The use of state-aid (e.g. Project Gigabit) in poorly served areas can help to mitigate against the extra costs of such builds (Fibrus has benefitted from this too). At the same time, it’s natural that Openreach itself doesn\u2019t need to pay the same rents as altnets because they’ve built and run the infrastructure. The incumbent also has maintenance, repairs and other upkeep costs to consider.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Openreach has previously suggested that the prices they charge for PIA may be too low and that rivals don’t share access to their own infrastructure in the same way (note: altnets that receive public investment are often obliged to offer a degree of infrastructure access, but this is almost never as attractive as PIA). Smaller altnets carry a lot of risk and often desire to protect the value of their asset vs those with Significant Market Power<\/strong> (SMP), such as Openreach – it’s not an even battlefield.<\/p>\n

None of this is to say that Fibrus’ complaint is wrong, and indeed there may be some arguments around certain aspects of PIA, which could potentially be considered as too expensive or in need of improvement. But those prices are ultimately set by Ofcom, not Openreach, and they\u2019re supposed to be set at a level which supports entry into the market by companies like Fibrus.<\/p>\n

Naturally, all of this is coming to the fore now because Ofcom are in the final stage of preparing their market decisions for the next 5 years via the Telecoms Access Review 2026<\/strong><\/a> (TAR), although the regulator’s initial proposals didn’t appear to push for any radical changes to PIA. The latest TAR is mostly about tweaks and smaller improvements, mainly to avoid destabilising existing investments at a critical point in the national roll-out (i.e. gigabit broadband for 99% of UK premises by 2032).<\/p>\n

As usual, Ofcom has the incredibly difficult job of trying to balance the many competing (vested) interests between different operators, which will always result in some winners and losers. We should close by mentioning that INCA\u2019s Infrastructure Sharing Group (ISG) is separately working to produce a new sharing framework (here<\/a>), but this is more of an altnets-only club and focuses on areas when Openreach\u2019s own PIA solution is not available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Co-Founder and Chairman of alternative rural broadband ISP Fibrus, Conal Henry, will tomorrow tell the Connected Britain event that Government subsidies (e.g. the \u00a35bn Project Gigabit programme) are being “wasted” due to Ofcom\u2019s rules allegedly making the roll-out of rural broadband “unnecessarily expensive“.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[471,1995,56,36,69,38,1997],"class_list":["post-43194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk_isp_news","tag-bduk","tag-fibrus","tag-fttp","tag-ofcom-regulation","tag-bt-openreach","tag-politics","tag-uk-gigabit-programme"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ispreview\/115255745641814333","error":""},"yoast_head":"\nFibrus Founder Claims Outdated Rules Force UK Taxpayers to Fund Rural Broadband - 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