Openreach struggling with permissions for City broadband roll-out

The rolling out of superfast broadband in the City of London has been big news, but provider Openreach, says it is struggling to get the permissions it needs to complete the work.

According to reports by CityAm, Openreach says that landlords are putting up a fight against some of the infrastructure work that needs to take place in order for businesses in the City to receive the super-fast broadband they have been promised.

The concerns have been raised following the news that the first Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) connection was made in the area earlier in May, marking the beginning of far more reliable broadband to businesses operating in the heart of London. However, the fact that so many of the landlords that own offices in the City live outside the UK, has resulted in Openreach having problems contacting them in order to obtain the permission they need to carry out internal infrastructure work.

Clive Selley, the CEO of Openreach, spoke to CityAm about the issue, stating: "It’s tough in London to work out who owns buildings and contact them, it’s quite unique as its an international city and buildings are owned by people across the planet.

"I worry that some connections could take years if the building owners don’t come forward."

The slow pace at which the project was being rolled out had already raised concerns for Catherine McGuinness, chairman of the City of London Corporation Policy and Resources Committee. She said that the Committee is working alongside Openreach to try to solve the permissions problems.

Openreach has successfully managed to install the external hardware needed for the roll out of the super-fast connectivity but the technology now needs to be installed inside each office building, and this is where the problems arise. The project involves Openreach speaking to the owners of some 10,000 buildings across the centre of London.