Peter Levy: You’ve said in the past about the sorry state of broadband in the East Riding so you must welcome these rival companies coming in to your patch now, bringing broadband, even though they've got poles.
Graham Stuart MP: Well, I absolutely welcome them coming in and having competition. As you say, I've fought to have KCOM's monopoly opened up for many years but we don't need the poles and the rules are set up so that the companies can use the existing infrastructure.
That's what really upsets my constituents they know the infrastructure is there. The ducts are there, but one way or another, companies don't seem to be able to access them. So that's my primary focus.
PL: OK, level with me then. Who is the guilty party in this? Who’s the bad boy? Or do they all need their heads knocking together?
GS: Well, I've knocked all the heads together. We had the meeting last week where we brought the three chief executives together.
But at the heart of this is KCOM. It's got to be said that if you look at MS3, Connexin, the two companies currently installing infrastructure, elsewhere they have used BT's infrastructure. They've said, in terms, that they would use...
PL: Are you saying that KCOM are not prepared to work with or share or maybe charge too much? Is that what you're saying?
GS: I'm saying that one way or another, companies have been unable to access KCOM's infrastructure.
KCOM say none of them have managed to go long enough as to get to a point where they can make a complaint, and that's what Ofcom tell me when I tell them to act.
So what we're seeing now though is with the erection of this infrastructure, the truth is KCOMs monopoly is gone so they need to just wake up, smell the coffee, open up their infrastructure at the same basis as Openreach.
And then we can ensure we don't have unnecessary poles erected in streets, much to the annoyance of my constituents.
PL: I know they're annoyed. And believe me, I've been getting emails on this for six or seven months now. But KCOM have done all the work. They've spent all the money. Why should they be forced to help competition to their business?
GS: Same reason BT were: because we have laws in this country to stop monopolies. People have been crying out for a competitive offer, and I believe people deserve to be able to have competition, lower prices, and a better service. And they're going to get that when we get this infrastructure opened up. And I believe we're starting to get there because the monopoly's gone anyway. Let's get it opened up, and KCOM can get some income.
PL: You sound furious with KCOM, if you don't mind me saying so.
GS: Perhaps they're just doing what's in their business interest, and the system so far hasn't got them to open up. We haven't been able to get the regulator to come in because it hasn't reached that point.
So I've worked with MS3, spoke to them at the end of last week, and they've already putting in a complaint. We need to open up KCOM, and when we do that, we won't have any more unnecessary poles, though sadly the ones that are erected will stay.
A transcript of Graham's interview with Peter Levy of BBC Look North on 22nd January 2024. The full package can be found on the BBC iPlayer. You can read about Graham's work on telegraph poles here.
