Broadband ISP WightFibre, which is investing up to £90m to rollout a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the Isle of Wight (South Coast of Hampshire, UK), has teamed up with law firm Trenches Law and apartment block specialist BSC to help boost their deployment.
The organisations will work together to manage the complex wayleave process (legal land/property access agreements), with Trenches Law working to coordinate dialogue between the Land Registry, local authorities, freeholders, property owners and toob, to ensure the necessary permissions are smoothly obtained to install and maintain network apparatus.
One of the problem areas set to benefit from this are high-rise buildings, including all those managed by BSC. All of this should help WightFibre to achieve their goal of reaching 75,000 homes and business on the island in the next few years, with over 27,000 homes already passed (rising to c.41,000 by the end of 2021 and 61,000 by June 2023 – here).
John Irvine, WightFibre’s CEO, said:
“WightFibre’s Gigabit Island project will see the roll-out of full fibre, ultrafast, future-proof broadband to around 75,000 homes and business on the island in the next few years with over 27,000 homes already passed. Trenches Law has been critical in the success of the project to date securing wayleaves and access agreements to keep the roll-out on track and to maximise the number of properties which can be connected – now including all those managed by BSC.”
Sharon McDermott, Founder of Trenches Law, said:
“There has been a significant amount of change in the telecoms sector over the past few years, but demand for full fibre coverage has never been greater, even in hard-to-reach areas.
The Government’s target to deliver a technology-neutral, gigabit-capable network across 85% of the country by the end of 2025, may have been considered by many as a ‘watered down’ version of the UK’s original target. And there is still a lot of work to be done.
That’s why telcos, landlords, property firms and legal specialists like ourselves need to collaborate – to make this highly sought-after infrastructure a reality. We’re pleased that our knowledge is being put to good use on the Isle of Wight and we look forward to releasing more residents from ‘locked’ areas, whether we need to rely on the Electronic Communications Code or not.”
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