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2004

THUS plc today raised fears that proposals to impose charges on utility companies for carrying out street works could jeopardise the Scottish Executive's flagship policy of extending broadband coverage.

The Glasgow-based telecoms company says the Executive has made it clear that higher bandwidth services for businesses must be further rolled out, which inevitably involves road works.

However, proposals to introduce schemes such as charging utility companies for carrying out works, known as lane rentals, would increase the costs of broadband service for Scottish businesses and could impede the Executive's objectives for business broadband under the Connecting Scotland policy.

Ministers are carrying out a consultation exercise before putting forward proposals to strengthen existing legislation or introduce new legislation aimed at reducing congestion on roads in Scotland.

In its response to the consultation, THUS accepts that congestion is a key issue for the Executive but believes there is no 'silver bullet' solution to congestion.

THUS argues that Scotland is already better placed than England to tackle congestion under the existing measures and supports fines being imposed on companies for poor performance and late completion of works.

THUS also supports off-peak and weekend working to reduce congestion and prefers to dig grassed areas and footpaths than streets.

"We understand that street works can be an inconvenience, but we dispute that utility companies are responsible for the majority of street works", says Richard Sweet, head of regulation at THUS. "The Transport Select Committee's recent recommendations apply equally well north of the border, that existing legislation is adequate but needs to be effectively enforced."

He added that the co-ordination of road works in Scotland is already far ahead of England as Scotland has in place a national information system (Susiephone) which allows a far greater degree of co-operation than is currently possible in England.

In its consultation response THUS says: "THUS plc has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in constructing an extensive fibre optic trunk network throughout Scotland in response to the demand from Scottish companies, and public sector organisations, for business grade high bandwidth services. Having constructed our network, the emphasis has, in recent years, switched to connecting customers to that network, a process which inevitably requires us to dig to the customer's premises. Unless we are able to continue to connect customers to that network that investment will be undermined.

"We are concerned that many of the options being considered, such as lane rentals, would increase the cost of providing such high bandwidth services; increases which would be borne by our customers. Increased costs might also render unviable more marginal business cases, in rural areas for example. Such a development would exacerbate the digital divide and place businesses in affected areas at a competitive disadvantage.

"We have found that the pilot lane rental schemes in England would have driven our costs up by around 37%. In the current competitive climate no operator could afford to absorb such increases and they would inevitably either be passed on to customers or we would be forced to turn away business, jeopardising our investment to Scotland to date and placing jobs at risk. Neither is an option we would relish.

"Given that many of the measures being considered involve charging utilities, legislation which ignored public sector work in order to target utilities would be open to challenge as being little more than an attempt to raise revenue from the private sector, or a "stealth tax".

"In England & Wales the Government has undertaken to look beyond utility works in an attempt to tackle a wider range of the causes of disruption than is the case in Scotland. We would urge the Executive to take such a holistic view since reducing the problem of congestion is in everyone's interest. We do not accept that singling out one sector for special treatment will deliver the best solution for Scotland."