REVEALED: How landlords will be forced to let broadband operators into their properties

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More details of the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill have been released to parliament including a new streamlined system for broadband providers to gain access to apartment blocks.

Landlords could soon be forced to allow
broadband providers into their buildings under planned legislation.

The Telecommunications Infrastructure
(Leasehold Property) Bill aims to address the issue that about 40% of requests
to access apartment blocks to install updates are currently ignored.

It should ensure tenants living in blocks of
flats and apartments get access to the latest generation of broadband and is
going through the Lords on its way to becoming law.

Speaking in The House, Baroness Barran, the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: “We understand from the likes of Openreach, Virgin Media, CityFibre, Gigaclear and other major telecoms providers that around 40% of their requests for access in such situations receive no response.”

Four million missing out

She said it was unacceptable that operators
were forced to bypass these properties which left some four million people missing
out.

The new Bill would give operators a new
streamline process through the courts to gain rights to install their
infrastructure; under the current court system it can cost about £14,000 per
application and take six or seven months to gain access.

Under the new system, once a tenant requests
a service, the operator must have issued three notices to the landlord
requesting access over 28 days, plus a final notice explicitly referencing the
fact that the court may be used to gain access.

Only after that can the operator apply to a
court for rights to access the property. A landlord can stop the process at any
point by responding to one of the notices.

Baroness Barran added: “This application
process is intended to be a last resort for operators. We hope that through the
passing and implementation of this legislation, landowner response rates will
increase, and this new court process will, over time, not even need to be
used.”

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