The Digital Economy Act 2017 is now in force. We do telecoms work and are therefore particularly interested in the fact that it brings into existence a new Electronic Communications Code.
The current Code dates from 1984 and applies to the electronic communications operators who maintain the infrastructure on public and private land that carries broadband, telephone landlines, cable television etc. When operators want to access private land they will try to reach agreement with the landowner, but failing agreement, as a last resort they can apply to the court for an order to dispense with the need for agreement.
The court and practitioners consider the current Code to be out-of-date and unclear. As a result, after much consultation the Code has now been reformed and it is hoped that the new Code will bring clarity and certainty to landowners and network providers and lower the cost of infrastructure rollout, incentivise investment and improve connectivity.
Of particular note for landowners is that the new Code introduces a new rent valuation system (the “no scheme” valuation) which is likely to lead to lower rents being paid than at present, and it allows operators to upgrade their apparatus without obtaining the landowner’s consent. In addition, landowners will no longer be able to negotiate terms with operators that are better than those in the Code.
It is not all doom and gloom for landowners, but the new Code does seem to favour operators over landowners, so landowners would be well advised to review their current agreements under the Code and be alert to operators trying to terminate their agreements early in order to take advantage of the provisions of the new Code – when it is in force.