Review of the Access to Infrastructure Regulations – Call for Evidence
Government has launched a call for evidence as part of a review of the Access to Infrastructure (ATI) Regulations 2016, which enables sharing of information about access to physical infrastructure across the utility, transport and communications sectors. It also includes the right to access that infrastructure on fair and reasonable commercial terms and conditions.
The review will assess if there are improvements that can be made to the regulations to further boost investment in infrastructure and encourage the use of passive infrastructure sharing to deploy telecoms networks. While operators are free to make their own commercial agreements on infrastructure sharing, the ATI Regulations have not been widely used in the UK to date despite the rapid increase in the rollout of gigabit broadband to meet the government’s ambitions for nationwide coverage by 2025.
It will make it easier for high-speed broadband cables to run through the electricity, gas, water and sewer networks across the UK. It could also mean strengthening broadband companies’ access to run cables along new and existing infrastructure lining the road and rail networks across the country.
Clare MacNamara, CEO said: “It is important for the Broadband Stakeholder Group that the right measures are in place to support UK fibre and gigabit rollout in order for industry to meet the target of nationwide availability by 2025. We therefore welcome government’s review of the regulations”.
The consultation ends on 4 September 2020.
