Across the UK there are thousands of multi-dwelling units. These range from blocks of flats, through to houses that have been converted into apartments.
While we are allowed to enter communal areas to repair the copper network, we’re not allowed to upgrade residents to Full Fibre. To do this, we need a wayleave given by the owner of the building, and this isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Where we can’t secure a wayleave, we are unable to install the fibre into the building.
We estimate that our Full Fibre is currently outside around 801,000* MDUs, most of which are ‘small’, meaning there’s between one and 30 flats within the building.
The government recently introduced a ‘workaround’ called the Telecommunications Infrastructure Leasehold Property Act, or TILPA. But our trials show that this is not working.
In Glasgow we found that it increased the cost of building by 160%, which is money away from upgrading other homes and businesses.
We want to work with government and the wider industry to develop a solution and prevent a future digital divide.
Automatic upgrade rights are the way forward, allowing us to use the same access rights to upgrade flats as we would to repair their broadband.
*Figure updated in November 2023 and does not match the video content.