PRESS RELEASE
‘End the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles and repurpose assets’, advises UK infrastructure specialist
20 March 2025 – As the country continues to move to a full fibre future, the government and internet providers across the UK are being urged to consider alternatives before adding to the country’s existing forest of more than four million telegraph poles.
At least 1.2 million homes will be able to access full fibre broadband networks thanks to government subsidies, amounting to £2.4 billion offered through the Project Gigabit scheme to date. With £2.6 billion of public funding to come and still a huge percentage of premises still not connected to a full fibre network, the use of innovative digital mapping platforms can dramatically reduce the need for the installation of new and often obtrusive infrastructure, says AssetHUB.
UK Government Data Protection and Telecoms Minster Sir Chris Bryant has previously raised concerns about the ways poles and fibre have been rolled out and called for telecoms companies to collaborate and share infrastructure, all while ensuring community concerns are not overlooked.
“With more poles being added to our streets, communities are unhappy and complaining to their local MPs,” AssetHUB CEO Rob Leenderts said. “In turn, these MPs are raising this issue with Minsters and therefore there is a clear appetite to solve this issue by working together and collaborating, as well as using mapping technology to know where assets are and if network builders and other organisations can access them.”
AssetHUB’s asset marketplace for purchasing and selling infrastructure and services helps network builders map their fibre networks and assets for visibility. It also ensures approved ISPs and other network builders are aware and able to gain access to the network securely, offering those that have not received funding an alternative to over-building more fibre.
Efforts to solve this issue are ongoing in the Independent Network Cooperative Association (INCA) Infrastructure Sharing Special Interest Group (IS-SIG) for pole, duct and cabinet space sharing. A free trial of AssetHUB is available for all INCA members as a way of encouraging Altnets to share this physical infrastructure.
Other work is ongoing within INCA to develop wholesale standards for accessing additional services like spare fibre capacity, optical wavelengths, ethernet and broadband connectivity. AssetHUB also facilitates these asset transactions through its secure, central platform.
Find out more about AssetHUB here: https://www.asset-hub.co.uk/.
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About AssetHUB
AssetHUB is a secure, centralised marketplace for the purchasing and selling of telecommunications assets, connectivity and services in the UK.
Drawing on a decade of operation and development in Sweden – one of the most fibre-connected countries in the world – AssetHUB is part of the Hubbub Group, a leading player in the wholesale of open access assets for the UK telecoms industry.
AssetHUB allows the UK industry to leverage existing infrastructure to speed up network deployments, reduce overbuild, obtain resilient connections and ensure compliance to key national regulations. The platform manages the full, end-to-end business workflow for buying and selling assets instantly via API, or manually through a secure web-portal, with all contract communications stored in a single place.
Assets includes duct, dark fibre, wavelengths, ethernet, street furniture, masts, towers, poles, buildings, cabinets, colocation space and land. Asset visibility is only shared with trusted and approved organisations. For more information, visit https://www.asset-hub.co.uk/. For the latest updates, follow the AssetHUB on LinkedIn.