Registering your site

Find out how to register your
development for broadband

How it works

Whatever size site you’re developing – from building your dream home to large housing developments – you’ll want to get the right infrastructure in place for broadband. This page tells you everything you need to know about doing that.
 

Talk to us as early as you can  

Please register your site at least eight weeks ahead of your Site Start Date and/or six months before the date you want broadband available at your first property. The earlier you register the better – that'll give us enough time to get proposals drawn up and agreed with you. 

Tips for getting broadband installed

Image of an alarm clock

           Allow enough time                 

Talk to us at least six months before you want broadband up and running.

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Check your development’s property type

Before you get in touch, please check whether your development is residential or commercial.

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Keep up-to-date documentation

Keep notes about dates, locations, what you’re building, contact details, plans, etc.

What information do you need to register my development?

  • 1. Dates

    The date you plan to start work at the site, and when you want broadband to be available in your first property. We don’t guarantee that we’ll meet this date, but it helps us to schedule our works.

  • 2. Location

    The address of the site and the Ordnance Survey grid references.

  • 3. Details of what you’re building

    The number of plots and their type (i.e. if they’re houses or flats), and if this is part of a larger development or you have several phases. This is so we can make sure we get the right capacity for your site from the start.

  • 4. Your contact details

    The name of the company building the new properties, on-site contacts and who to talk to if we have a question.

  • 5. The plans

    At Openreach we can accept your site plans in a couple of formats. CAD plans can be submitted in .dxf format with specific Openreach layers and blocks. Our legacy process also allows plans to be submitted in a specific .pdf format.

    Our preferred format is .dxf files which provides benefits to both the developer and Openreach in terms of accuracy and turnaround time. You can download a Developer Guide to Site Registration and CAD below:

    If you're uploading your site plan as a CAD drawing it must be in the .dxf format and contain the mandatory Openreach blocks, layers and attributes described in the developer guide. The Openreach block library containing these blocks can be found below:

    If the site is to be phased then additional phasing information will be required (this is required for all sites over 200 plots). For sites containing blocks of flats (MDUs) Openreach also requires an accommodation schedule detailing the plots per floor, floors per block etc. These additional details can be submitted at the point of registration using the CAD Registration Support Document (Excel) below:

    When following the formwize registration process the current webform requires mandatory documents to be uploaded in the Detailed Site and Location Plans sections. If you are providing a valid CAD file when prompted to provide a .pdf site or location plan you may upload the generic CAD Support Upload Document template instead. 

    For guidance on the legacy .pdf process can be found on notes and guidance page on the Developer portal.

Will I have to pay to get broadband infrastructure installed?

  • 1. Residential developments with more than 20 plots

    What will I have to contribute?
    Nothing – we’ll install Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) for free.

    What you need to do now
    Register your site and we’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.

    If your company already has a framework agreement with us, you won’t need to sign anything else – we’ll produce proposals for you straight away. (If you’d like to find out more about framework agreements, please get in touch.)

  • 2. Residential developments with less than 20 plots

    What will I have to contribute?
    If you want your new homeowners to have access to the fastest broadband speeds in the UK with FTTP, you can contribute towards the cost of installing this (find out what it might cost). We’ll send you the costs once you register your site.

    Not sure whether FTTP is for you? Read about the benefits.

    We’ll build copper or fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) infrastructure for free. We only build Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology for free at sites with less than 20 plots if it’s cheaper than copper or Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) (we’ll decide this once we look at your registration information).

    What you need to do now
    Register your site and we’ll send you agreements for copper/FTTC, and also the costs for installing FTTP (including the details of the available network for your site and the speeds you should get with this).

    Once you get these you’ll need to sign the agreement you want to enter in to and send it back to us. We’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.

    Rebates for sites with more than 11 plots
    If you have more than 11 plots, we’ll give you a rebate to pay for the physical build of on-site duct and chamber infrastructure. We only pay this when groundworks have been finished and we’ve checked they meet certain quality standards. Find out more about rebate payments.

  • 3. Single properties

    What will I have to pay for?
    It depends on your situation.

    If you know who’s moving into the property, and you want broadband right away

    If you’d like a copper connection, please contact a broadband provider to order this (you’ll need to let them know that you’re building a new, single plot home). They’ll then organise for one of our survey officers to come to your site to agree how and when we can get broadband in place. You might have to pay for this.

    If you’d like a Full Fibre connection, first use our fibre checker to make sure you can get fibre in your area. If you can, you’ll then need to contact a broadband provider to organise this. Find broadband providers offering Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC).

    If you don’t know who’s moving in but you want to get broadband infrastructure in place

    You can ask us to install the network in advance so the connection is ready when people move in. You’ll have to pay for this. We’ll install a copper connection, but please use our fibre checker to see if you can get FTTC.

    If you want to go ahead, fill in the registration form and choose a 'a new site that will be built in one phase'. We’ll contact you to arrange a survey (which you’ll have to pay for). Once that’s done we’ll be able to tell you how much it’ll cost to put the infrastructure in place.

  • 4. Commercial properties

    We install Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband on commercial sites, as long as it’s available in your area. We’ll need to carry out a survey of your site before we can do this.

    What will I have to contribute?

    For FTTP, we’ll install infrastructure for free on sites of 20 or more units. For single commercial plots, or sites of 2-19 units we'll work with you to offer a bespoke network solution, and we'll contribute an amount per unit towards the cost of the build.

    If you want to have copper installed instead, you’ll have to pay for this yourself.

    What you need to do now
    Fill in the registration form and we’ll contact you to talk through what’s available and how much it’ll cost (if anything). You’ll then need to fill in and sign an agreement so we can draw up proposals for your site.

  • 5. Other things to note

     
    • Residential property means homes or flats with their own, individual addresses, where each resident pays council tax. Commercial property is any property that’s used for business purposes. It will have its own address and pay business rates.
    • If a property is empty or defined as ‘not habitable’ by the local council, we can’t put any broadband infrastructure in place.
    • It’ll be the new home owner’s responsibility to order broadband from their chosen provider when they move in – we only put the infrastructure in place to make sure they can get this (as we don't sell phone or broadband services).
    • Once we’ve got your registration form, we’ll send you a new sites agreement i.e. the contract and wayleave for your site. If you don’t sign and return this to us, we won’t be able to take your application any further (unless you already have a framework agreement in place). 

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Register your site

  • Sites with 20+ plots

    • Site registration
    Residential developments with more than 20 plots. Register your site and we’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.
    Read more »

  • Sites with 1-19 plots including commercial

    • Site registration
    Residential and commercial developments with less than 20 plots. Register your site and we’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.
    Read more »

  • For Northern Ireland

    • Site registration
    Residential and commercial developments in Northern Ireland. Register your site and we’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.
    Read more »