Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make it his policy to require fixed line operators to share infrastructure to help tackle the proliferation of telegraph poles.

We understand concerns about the excessive deployment of telegraph poles, and are urgently considering options to address this.

Telegraph poles can play an important role in delivering affordable connectivity to communities, and competition can offer consumers greater choice and cheaper rates. However, it is vital that operators share infrastructure wherever possible, as the last thing anyone wants is for our towns and villages to be littered with countless unnecessary competing telegraph poles.

Existing regulations require operators to share infrastructure where practicable, and the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 made it easier to upgrade and share existing apparatus.

In addition, the Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016 are designed to facilitate sharing for physical infrastructure.