Altnets have been told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber into abandoned gas and water pipes to save costs.
As reported by The Register, AssetHUB, a trading platform for assets and infrastructure, said altnets could save millions on deployment costs if they do not dig up roads for new fiber deployments.
Instead, the company said altnets should utilize abandoned pipes to lay fiber.
"While the installation of fiber is crucial for improved connectivity for communities, the process of digging up roads leads to significant public inconvenience. It often causes issues such as traffic delays, noise pollution, and disruptions to daily life," said AssetHUB chief executive Rob Leenderts.
He added that digging up roads and footpaths is costly, and can be more expensive if deployments have to be rerouted around obstacles.
Infrastructure reuse is not a new concept. Openreach, the infrastructure arm of BT, already permits other providers to reuse its ducts under what is known as Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA), but it does have its limitations.
One of the problems facing altnets is that until last year they were not able to replace existing copper drop wires with fiber and were forced to rely on the incumbent’s engineers.
As reported by IS Preview, Openreach has now granted altnets a limited ability to use their own engineers for the work. The company has also launched a drop wire replacement scheme to reduce failed installations caused by a pole being deemed defective after an order has been accepted.
As early as 2022, the UK government was trialing running fiber-optic broadband cables through water mains in Yorkshire.
At the time, the former digital infrastructure minister Julia Lopez said that digging up roads was one of the largest obstacles to rolling out broadband, so using existing water networks would accelerate deployment. In turn, the fiber network would help detect and minimize water leaks.
Scottish and Southern Electric have also previously mooted ideas in London about running fiber through sewers, though were not successful.
The Register asked altnets if they were prepared to reuse abandoned utility infrastructure, but none were prepared to comment.
However, a spokesperson from altnet Community Fibre told The Register: “Community Fibre has done virtually no digging when we were either building our network or when connecting our customers as we use Openreach’s ducts and poles. We believe that aside [from] the obvious cost advantages of using existing infrastructure ducts and poles, unnecessary digging is also bad for the environment and residents with the associated congestion and disruption.”
In recent years, the UK government has pushed for modern fiber networks to be rolled out across the country. Ministers under both Conservative and Labour governments have instructed network operators to share infrastructure.
Last year, CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch publicly declared thataltnets have sparked the UK's fiber push, scaring industry incumbents such as Openreach and Virgin Media O2.
