The Government has flagged up the possibility of opening up the UK sewerage network as a possible option for the installation of telecoms networks to deliver nationwide superfast broadband gigabit coverage.

The proposal is part of a range of options put forward by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DDCMS) with the launch of an open call for evidence for the UK government’s wide-ranging review of the Access to Infrastructure Regulations.

The DDCMS is keen to explore how deployment costs and barriers can be further reduced, including by improving access to the UK’s passive infrastructure such as the networks of ducts, cabinets, poles and masts that deliver utilities services across the country. Sharing the existing infrastructure of other telecoms and utilities has the potential to increase the speed and lower the cost of improving both fixed and mobile networks dramatically.

The Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016 (the ATI Regulations) include provisions for the sharing of physical infrastructure across the UK to deploy telecoms networks. The Department said it also welcomes voluntary moves by infrastructure owners to open up access to their passive infrastructure for the deployment of next generation digital infrastructure.

Although limited, there are some instances of access to utilities infrastructure sharing in the UK to rollout fibre connections. Zayo, following its acquisition of Geo Networks Ltd in 2014, has an extensive fibre network in London sewers and, in 2017, TrueSpeed signed a pole sharing agreement with Western Power Distribution, allowing them to use WPD’s electricity network to deploy full fibre.

More recently, SSE have been undertaking a trial with Thames Water to lay fibre cables in sewers for mobile backhaul.

A key consideration for infrastructure sharing across telecoms and utilities would be how such arrangements are effectively regulated.

Ofcom and other regulators are already interested in how to encourage greater use of the ATI Regulations and sharing data on and use of infrastructure.

In September 2019 the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) published a report into the extent of infrastructure data sharing across the transport, water, energy and telecoms sectors, including the role of regulators in encouraging this.

The report identified a number of key barriers to sharing data on infrastructure, including concerns over the misuse of confidential data, liability and data quality, as well as the lack of common data standards and a user-friendly central portal. Differences in organisational cultures was also identified as a factor that could inhibit data sharing. As a result, the UKRN made the following recommendations to improve infrastructure data sharing:

• Regulators should provide guidance around what data can be shared.
• Regulators should produce best practice guidelines around sharing data.
• Industry should work collaboratively, with support from regulators, to agree common data standards, definitions and a shared framework.
• The government and/or regulators should explore the creation of a central data portal that holds the ‘what, where and who’ for each asset in each sector.

Deadline for responses to the open call for evidence for the UK government’s review of the Access to Infrastructure Regulations is 4 September 2020. Click here to access the Call for Evidence online