UK operators urged to use existing infrastructure for broadband upgrades

Millions of UK tenants will no longer be prevented from receiving a broadband upgrade due to the silence of their landlords, following the enforcement of the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act (TILPA). The law allows operators to gain access to a block of flats 35 days after the service provider’s request to the landlord. It is estimated that an extra 2,100 residential buildings a year will be connected as a result.

Around 40% of broadband companies’ requests for access to install connections are blocked, due to no landlord response. To date, tenants living in the UK’s estimated 480,000 blocks of flats (also known as multi-dwelling units, or MDUs) have had to wait for a landlord’s permission to have a broadband operator enter their building to install faster connectivity.

“This landmark new law allows broadband providers to seek rights to access a flat or an apartment if the person required to grant access is unresponsive, preventing situations where a tenant is unable to receive a service simply due to the silence of a landlord,” said InCoax Head of Product Management, Marketing & Sales Helge Tiainen. “This is a crucial opportunity for operators to reuse existing infrastructure for broadband access as TILPA enables subscribers and service providers to circumvent landlords who fail to provide access permission.”

Installing fibre to every flat is expensive in terms of labour costs and disruptive to customers. Flats and apartments already have existing coaxial networks, meaning landlords and operators can now leverage InCoax Network’s fibre access extension technology for a cost-effective and less complex upgrade of broadband.

The UK government envisions that 85% of the UK will be able to access gigabit fixed broadband by 2025. InCoax’s technology delivers multi-gigabit broadband services and uses the existing in-house coax cable infrastructure, positioning it as the cost and time-saving alternative to pulling new cables. It is also especially important for areas where optical fibre cannot be deployed due to limitations on construction, a lack of ducts, apartment or building accessibility, and technical or historical preservations reasons.

Last year in Texas, United States, InCoax and PCs for People provided symmetrical gigabit connectivity for tenants in 256 apartments at Stoneridge Apartments’ affordable living complex. Preliminary calculations highlighted that the cost of installation dropped from $440 per apartment with fibre, to $125 per apartment by reusing the existing coaxial cabling infrastructure.