Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the department is taking with Ofcom to help ensure that telegraph poles are not being overwhelmed by an excess of new wiring resulting from the coexistence of coaxial cable systems and phone line-based networks.

The government supports sharing of poles between network operators as it reduces costs and disruption to residents and supports competition in the market. The Access to Infrastructure (ATI) Regulations 2016 are designed to facilitate sharing of physical infrastructure between operators, and Ofcom’s Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product mandates Openreach to provide access to their poles to other operators.

The PIA Working Group, chaired by the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator, monitors and provides guidance on appropriate number of lines and weight bearing per pole to prevent them being overwhelmed.

As the independent regulator for telecommunications, Ofcom is responsible for making regulatory decisions in the fixed telecoms sector, including decisions regarding enforcement of the ATI Regulations and PIA.