Reply to post: Re: About time councils put their foot down

Re: About time councils put their foot down

"a few councils putting this as a requirement for granting planning permission might get the whole FTTP movement kickstarted."

Unfortunately this would have a detrimental effect on customers overall. What happens would happen is what happens with the (supposedly) competitive market for new gas & electricity connections. Big builders sign lucrative contracts with a company who often not only provides the connections free, but actually pays money to the developer and this is the world of IGTs and IDNOs - companies (for example GTC) who then have the new housebuyers by the short and curlies, because nobody will lay duplicate infrastructure. The additional costs to consumers are sometimes hidden, sometimes they are not, but these sorts of developments inflate the cost to consumers for something that doesn't need to be any more expensive than the other 99% of the population. In the case of electricity and gas, you're free to switch supplier, but the supplier doesn't have to offer the same price for IGT and IDNO customers (some socialise the additional costs across all customers, some don't).

And the idea of monopoly non-BT last half mile operators is already here - GTC offer FTTH and claim to reach half a million homes. I can't speak for the cost because I can't find the cost, but I'd be very surprised if they are particularly competitive, and that reflects the IDNO and IGT business models.

It should be part of the local council's job to make this happen (let's face it, they can't even keep road pot hole free), but it could be easily done through amending the building regulations. But this isn't enough, it either needs LLU for all "last mile" connections (GTC, Virginmedia, Kingston, etc) or it needs full and effective regulation of all broadband infrastructure, and either of these last two would be a big ask, given the fact that politicians prattle on about broadband, but understand nothing about it.