Engineer planning development of site

Registering your site

Find out how to register your development for broadband

How it works

Whatever size site you’re developing – from building your dream home to large housing developments – you’ll want to get the right infrastructure in place for broadband. This page tells you everything you need to know about doing that.
 

Talk to us as early as you can  

Please register your site at least eight weeks ahead of your Site Start Date and/or six months before the date you want broadband available at your first property. The earlier you register the better – that'll give us enough time to get proposals drawn up and agreed with you. 

Once you've registered your site you can use our Developer Portal to check on how things are progressing.

Tips for getting broadband installed

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Allow enough time

Talk to us at least six months before you want broadband up and running.

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Check your development’s property type

Before you get in touch, please check whether your development is residential or commercial.

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Keep up-to-date documentation

Keep notes about dates, locations, what you’re building, contact details, plans, etc.

What information do you need to register my development?

  • 1. Dates

    The date you plan to start work at the site, and when you want broadband to be available in your first property. We don’t guarantee that we’ll meet this date, but it helps us to schedule our works.

  • 2. Location

    The address of the site and the Ordnance Survey grid references.

  • 3. Details of what you’re building

    The number of plots and their type (i.e. if they’re houses or flats), and if this is part of a larger development or you have several phases. This is so we can make sure we get the right capacity for your site from the start.

  • 4. Your contact details

    The name of the company building the new properties, on-site contacts and who to talk to if we have a question.

  • 5. The plans

    At Openreach we can accept your site plans in a couple of formats. CAD plans can be submitted in .dxf format with specific Openreach layers and blocks. Our legacy process also allows plans to be submitted in a specific .pdf format.

    Our preferred format is .dxf files which provides benefits to both the developer and Openreach in terms of accuracy and turnaround time. You can download a Developer Guide to Site Registration and CAD below:

    If you're uploading your site plan as a CAD drawing it must be in the .dxf format and contain the mandatory Openreach blocks, layers and attributes described in the developer guide. The Openreach block library containing these blocks can be found below:

    If the site is to be phased then additional phasing information will be required (this is required for all sites over 200 plots). For sites containing blocks of flats (MDUs) Openreach also requires an accommodation schedule detailing the plots per floor, floors per block etc. These additional details can be submitted at the point of registration using the CAD Registration Support Document (Excel) below:

    When following our online registration process, we require you to submit some mandatory documents in the Detailed Site and Location Plans sections. If you are providing a valid CAD file when prompted to provide a .pdf site or location plan you may upload the generic CAD Support Upload Document template instead. 

    For guidance on the legacy .pdf process can be found on notes and guidance page on the Developer portal.

Will I have to pay to get broadband infrastructure installed?

  • 1. Residential developments with more than 19 plots

    What will I have to contribute?

    Nothing – we’ll install Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) for free.

    What you need to do now

    Register your site and we’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.

    If your company already has a framework agreement with us, you won’t need to sign anything else – we’ll produce proposals for you straight away. (If you’d like to find out more about framework agreements, please get in touch.)

  • 2. Residential developments with 1 - 19 plots

    From 26th December 2026 all new homes built in England require gigabit capable infrastructure to be installed. This is due to legislation changes to the Building Regulations 2010 issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). 

    Openreach Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) is already fully compliant with the changes to building regulations by meeting the definition of ‘Gigabit’ ready. We’ll send you the costs once you register your site.

    What will I have to pay for?

    Openreach will contribute to the cost of the build, with your contributions varying depending on your situation. For most developments the cost will be determined by our standard rate card found here.  Your contribution will be confirmed once you register your site.

    The maximum developer contribution for mandatory FTTP is £2000 per plot. 

    What if the developer contribution is more than £2000?

    We’ll outline the additional costs over £2000 pet plot and provide the option to pay for these to provide an FTTP connection. We highly recommend all new developments install an FTTP connection.

    For those sites where FTTP install would be too costly a Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) or copper connection can be provided.

    What you need to do now

    Register your site and we’ll send you agreements and costings for FTTP infrastructure.

    Once you get these you’ll need to sign the agreement you want to enter in to and send it back to us. We’ll then draw up proposals for your site and send these to you.

    Service on Demand (SOD) payment for sites with more than 11 plots

    If you have more than 11 plots, we’ll give you a SOD payment for the physical build of on-site duct and chamber infrastructure. We only pay this when groundworks have been finished and we’ve checked they meet certain quality standards. Find out more about SOD Payments.

  • 3. Commercial properties

    We install Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband on commercial sites, as long as it’s available in your area. We’ll need to carry out a survey of your site before we can do this.

    What will I have to contribute?

    For FTTP, we’ll install infrastructure for free on sites of 20 or more units. For single commercial plots, or sites of 2-19 units we'll work with you to offer a bespoke network solution, and we'll contribute an amount per unit towards the cost of the build.

    For Developer Network in Advance our commercial team will contact you once you've registered to discuss your requirements. We'll then produce a bespoke quote for your development.

    If you want to have copper installed instead, you’ll have to pay for this yourself.

    What you need to do now

    Register your site(s) and we’ll contact you to talk through what’s available and how much it’ll cost (if anything). You’ll then need to fill in and sign an agreement so we can draw up proposals for your site.

  • 4. Infrastructure only sites

    What will I have to contribute?

    There’s no cost to you. We’ll build the infrastructure to the edge of your site for free as long as you confirm you’ll have Openreach infrastructure installed on your site when ready.

    What you need to do now

    Register your site and submit the details of your build. We’ll then be in touch with more information.

  • 5. New Site rate cards

    New Site rate cards for 1 - 19 properties

    New Site Refurbishment rate card including single plots

    New Site Holiday Let rate card including single plots

    New Site Holiday Let rate card for 2 - 20+ plots

  • 6. Other things to note

    • Residential property means homes or flats with their own, individual addresses, where each resident pays council tax. Commercial property is any property that’s used for business purposes. It will have its own address and pay business rates.
    • If a property is empty or defined as ‘not habitable’ by the local council, we can’t put any broadband infrastructure in place.
    • It’ll be the new home owner’s responsibility to order broadband from their chosen provider when they move in – we only put the infrastructure in place to make sure they can get this (as we don't sell phone or broadband services).
    • Once we’ve got your registration form, we’ll send you a new sites agreement i.e. the contract and wayleave for your site. If you don’t sign and return this to us, we won’t be able to take your application any further (unless you already have a framework agreement in place). 

Interested in Full Fibre?

The best way to keep up to date with our plans for your own home or business is to register for Full Fibre updates through our Fibre Checker

Register your site

Single plot residential site

Begin registration for a single plot site

Sites with 2+ plots, Commercial sites, Refurbished sites and Infrastructure only sites

Register on the Developer Portal