Fibre future-proofing – the case for monitoring fibre installation works

The Government’s gigabit-broadband manifesto pledge has led to a huge upsurge in retro-fit telecommunications infrastructure installations across the country. With the existing copper networks due to be phased out by December 2025, upgrading to fibre infrastructure is now essential for most, if not all, residents to maintain reliable telephone or internet connectivity. Naturally, freeholders have been committed to ensuring the long-term resilience of their residential buildings by getting ahead of the deadlines to ensure residents avoid future disruption, inflated bills or poor service coverage. In so doing, many freeholders capitalised on incentives provided by some internet service providers (ISPs) to install fibre cables at no cost, while also covering costs of third-party consultants to oversee works – a good deal that may not be around for much longer. 

While fibre installation works have been taking place at speed across the length and breadth of the country, monitoring the installation works has become a process of paramount importance to both freeholders and service providers. Fibre installation involves complex internal processes that often require making physical modifications and impacts to existing fire safety and internal finishes. 

Over the past 7 years, formerly as Cardoe Martin and now as SRVO, our highly experienced fibre surveying and administration teams have been a vital partner in delivering these works from end-to-end, overseeing the process to ensure the freeholders’ best interests are considered, and that installations are executed to the highest standards, mitigating against damage to property while maintaining safety regulations.  In this time, we have reviewed well over 3,000 installation proposals and conducted approximately 5,000 inspections.

The integral role of the building surveyor in the Fibre installation process

While working on behalf of clients – the freeholders of residential buildings – the building surveyors’ fees are often covered by the service provider as a sign of good faith that they intend to be professional and accountable. The role of the fibre surveyor and administrator is in: 

• Reviewing installation proposals to verify the viability of planned routes.
• Assessing site-specific Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS) to ensure proper safety considerations and due diligence.
• Identifying fire barriers that will be penetrated during installation, and documenting fire-stopping methods, and ensuring compliance with passive fire safety regulations.
• Providing detailed documentation to note where there are requirements for remediation of penetrations through fire barriers by third-party accredited passive fire safety installers.
• Conducting thorough post-installation inspections to confirm that works are carried out to agreed routes and specifications, that cabling is safe and that there are no safety hazards, mess, or property damage.
• Reviewing and approving Health & Safety handover documents before providing them to the client.

As with any complex, intrusive works to assets in occupation, fibre installation projects can often come up against unforeseen issues and, an experienced surveyor can help clients and service providers navigate challenging situations. This can include installation routes proving unviable, or other objectionable elements such as planning, while service providers may also have overlooked site-specific requirements or preferences. Latterly, where issues arise as a result of the works, the consultant is relied upon to identify and report issues to the project lead to prioritise remediation. 

Adding value through the installation programme

A number of factors contribute towards successful completion of fibre installation projects. When an expert fibre surveying and administration team can draw upon extensive experience and relationships, they can add real value across the monitoring programme, including by:

• Standardising terms to minimise disruption and delay: Establishing standardised or route-specific wayleave agreements ensures that freeholders retain control over installations and prevent providers from making unrestricted changes by requiring additional permissions to be sought before deviations are made. Approvals can be progressed with greater efficiency as many obstacles will have already been eliminated, which helps to remove delays and frustration from the process, and minimise impact on residents.
• Comprehensive monitoring: All installations are properly documented, inspected, and reviewed, providing freeholders with a clear record of completed work.
• Efficient progress: SRVO’s strong, established relationships with multiple service providers means we are familiar with differing systems and processes employed by each provider, which can help to facilitate streamlined communication, reducing unnecessary delays and disruptions. 
• Cost management: With an expert surveyor in place from the outset, a lot of time that would be otherwise spent re-negotiating fees could be put to better use to maximise efficiency. Meanwhile, our involvement prevents unsolicited costs from emerging mid-project, which can otherwise cause disputes between subcontractors, service providers and freeholders. These can add delays to the programme and cause disruption to residents. 
• Maximising revenue opportunities: Some clients generate additional revenue through pre-agreed solicitor fees for wayleaves or pre-set fee structures for installations, a model that other larger freeholders could adopt in exchange for access to install into their portfolio. Additionally, multiple telecommunications service providers could be considered for installations into the same site, giving better choice and potentially lower bills for residents. 

Our aim is to provide value to all stakeholders involved in the fibre installation process. From reviewing service providers’ proposals to attending site inspections, from managing access and RAMS to Health & Safety documentation, we have been committed to helping our clients mitigate against risk and prioritising a smooth switch over process.  With only a few months until the expected December 2025 deadline to replace copper networks, we are proud of the role we have played as a trusted partner to our clients and customers across the residential sector, helping to get assets future-ready with a promise of quality, safety and efficiency.