Summary

  • Ofcom opened an investigation into Grayshott Gigabit's compliance with Regulation 16, which requires a Code operator to back specified streetworks liabilities with funds and annual evidence. The case is open.
  • The obligation reaches beyond a network's operating life: certain highway-authority costs may arise after an operator ceases trading, and the statutory liability period runs to the third anniversary of that event.

A fibre route can be installed in a fortnight and left in a street for decades. If its operator vanishes, a highway authority still has a road to maintain. That is the bill behind Ofcom's open Grayshott Gigabit investigation. The regulator is examining whether there are reasonable grounds to believe the company failed to meet Regulation 16's funds-for-liabilities duty. It has announced an inquiry, not a finding about a missing bond or an unpaid repair.

The rule itself puts two duties on Code operators. They must keep sufficient funds available for specified liabilities arising from their street apparatus. They must also send Ofcom a signed certificate and the insurance, bond, guarantee or other instrument that provides the funds. For a first use of Code rights, evidence is due two weeks ahead of installation; after that the annual date is 1 April. This is a financial gate attached to permission to work in public land, not a nice-to-have reserve line in a network business plan.

Ofcom's operational guidance gives the practical exposure. It includes reasonable costs a highway authority may incur removing redundant apparatus or repairing damage from installation or removal. A relevant event can be the operator ceasing to trade or becoming unable to pay. The liability window then runs for three years. Ofcom says absent the backing, the costs may be left to the public. A company can be gone while its buried hardware remains very much present.

The operator assesses its own potential liabilities. Ofcom accepts various financial instruments, and its specimen performance bond is an example rather than a mandatory form. That makes the key diligence questions concrete: what street assets are covered, how much cover exists, who can call on it, and will it survive the operator that bought it? A board-approved certificate records management's position, while the attached instrument determines whether a highway authority has money to use when a claim actually arrives.

Ofcom has published no amount, missing document or enforcement result for Grayshott. The case outcome and the company's dated certificate and instrument would change the assessment. Until then, the useful industry lesson is the financing of the exit, not another celebration of the build.