Game-changing advantage for altnets | OS

Altnets (alternative network providers offering fibre broadband) embarking on network expansion programmes can quickly run into trouble, when confronted with high rise flats and mixed-use residential and commercial buildings in Britain.

Gaps in data around the classification and characteristics of these types of buildings prevents the smooth running of operational rollouts, or targeted sales and marketing strategies from reaching the different occupiers inside.

Problems such as not knowing how much cable or pipework is required for a job, not knowing what tools need to be on-site, or not knowing what type of staffing expertise will be needed to work on a specific type of building – all these issues mount up. Even before the work can start, not having a clear idea of who owns the piece of land around a building that must be accessed or dug up can create problems. 

Without the correct data or insight for complex buildings, overcoming these issues becomes time-consuming, resource heavy, and results in missing out on prospects to competitors, or missing the full extent of business opportunities for a building.

Similar issues can affect altnets when they tackle complex sites such as schools, hospitals, and factories.

Complex Building Intelligence

Ordnance Survey (OS) has unveiled a major step forward for dealing with these problems by compiling a concept called Complex Building Intelligence for its Partner Channel* to deliver.

Introduced at the Connected Britain event in September 2023, to a significant buzz among players in the altnet industry, Complex Building Intelligence allows users to identify and classify multi-dwelling units through a location analytics service.

The analytics pulls data from multiple sources into one new single layer, combining OS’s addressing, topographic and building height data with HM Land Registry** and Royal Mail PAF data.

Attributes for complex buildings are all available in one place, including: building geometry (e.g. size and shape), building height, functional use of buildings (e.g. retail or education), key infrastructure sites (e.g. hospitals), Unique Property Reference Numbers*** and tenure data for England and Wales (e.g. registered owner or leaseholders).

The full analytics service contains 7.2 million addresses shown within 1.2m buildings around Britain.

The solution incorporates HMLR Title Number data and information about land ownership. For altnets, this streamlines the wayleave consent process when installing telecoms equipment on private land. It also means altnets are no longer forced to licence HMLR and OS data separately when seeking correct land ownership data for sites.