Homeowners say they are getting fed-up with telegraph poles being installed outside their properties. A local MP has now got involved after claims the structures are appearing "without permission or advance notice."
The Labour MP said she was calling for operators to apply for planning permission for poles and similar objects appearing near homes, gardens, and in the middle of pavements. Dame Diana Johnson said lax planning permission rules meant residents were not given an opportunity to have their say.
MPs are now set to debate the issue in the Commons on Wednesday, Dame Diana, for Kingston upon Hull North, has previously called for the law - which has classed such infrastructure as "permitted development" since 2021 - to change, HullLive reports.
Permitted development means companies can install the infrastructure without going through the normal planning process provided or consulting locals. Ofcom also requires them to abide by the Electronic Communications Code requiring them to inform local authorities and inform locals and give them an avenue to complain.
New broadband companies coming into Hull and the East Riding have said they would rather share infrastructure with KCOM and put up poles and laid cables when they could not. They added they tried their best to work with affected households.
But people living in north Hull and some East Riding villages have claimed they often only find out about infrastructure once it has been installed. KCOM has said it works to process applications to use its network as quickly as possible.
Dame Diana said the law had to be changed. The MP said: "Many residents in my constituency and across the country have found telegraph poles erected close to their homes, their gardens, and in the middle of pavements without permission or advance notice.
"The House of Commons should urge the Government to make it a requirement for operators to apply for permission from local authorities and consult affected residents."
What is being installed and why?
The new infrastructure from broadband companies tends to be carried via telegraph poles or masts. Much of the work has been concentrated in north Hull, but some new infrastructure has started appearing in East Riding villages.
Elsewhere in the country, different broadband companies have access to existing Openreach cables and lines. In Hull, KCOM says it is legally required to provide access to their network. However, one competitor, Connexin, claimed KCOM was making it "difficult for operators such as us" to share existing infrastructure.
Another, MS3, said it was "hopeful" of announcing a collaboration with KCOM soon. For now, however, the companies have been ploughing ahead with installing their own lines, with telegraph poles appearing to be the quickest and cheapest method.
Guy Miller, the CEO of MS3 Networks, said reusing existing underground cables and telegraph lines was always his company's preferred option. He said: "If this is not available, we prefer to dig.
"Only when this too is not viable, do we install new telegraph poles. This is due to speed of deployment and reduced costs and disruption."
"We continue to engage with KCOM to utilise their infrastructure in the same way that we use Openreach’s outside of the region. We are hopeful we will announce the first collaboration in the coming weeks."
A spokesperson for Connexin said arrangements to share infrastructure were not as clear in Hull as they were in the rest of the UK. The spokesperson added: "Other operators can access Openreach wires and underground ducts under a clearly laid out agreement and pricing regime.
"In Tickton, for example, 70 per cent of the village is already covered by Openreach, with Openreach being regulated to share, this means we can lay our cables in their ducts and only deploy new infrastructure in specific locations where it is absolutely needed. In Hull itself KCOM do not have the same strict regulatory overview as Openreach."
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"They continue to make it difficult for operators such as us in spite of their claims to make it easy. It's frustrating for residents, the council and the operators and progress is still slow."
A KCOM spokesperson said they were legally required to provide access to their network and already worked with more than 150 other providers in Hull and the East Riding. The spokesperson added: "To say we do not provide access to our infrastructure is incorrect.
"We process applications to use our network quickly and thoroughly when we receive them and they’re submitted correctly with all the required information. Where new providers have installed poles it’s entirely their own commercial choice.
"We sympathise with local residents who are having unpopular poles installed in their streets. But unfortunately that’s the decision of other providers and theirs alone."
