Openreach has launched a digital mapping tool to make it easier for CPs to plan and build their own fibre broadband networks using the company's nationwide network infrastructure.
The digitised network maps provide an interactive view of the company's national network of underground ducts, telephone poles and cable chambers.
Openreach hopes that the new web-based maps will encourage more fibre broadband networks to be built across the country as companies will be able to carry out more work themselves, more quickly and efficiently, without seeking permission from Openreach.
Such companies will no longer need to request static records and network diagrams from Openreach when planning their own broadband networks.
Openreach will be adding further enhancements to the service over the coming months, including a tool that shows how much capacity is available in each duct and which parts of the network have been reserved for building work by other companies already.
There will also be a tool for CPs to download the underlying data and add it to their own geographical mapping systems.
The mapping tool follows the announcement last summer that the company is conducting trials with five communications providers to test new, simplified duct and pole sharing processes across the UK. These have since moved from trial to full launch in January.
Clive Selley, CEO, Openreach, said: "As our infrastructure already exists, CPs will be able to build and expand their fibre network in far quicker timescales than if building it from scratch. The mapping tool further enhances that process - giving CPs exactly the same level of access to our network data as Openreach.
"Our ducts and poles have been open to these companies for several years, and Ofcom has been clear that the price to access them is in line with international comparisons, but they haven't been used on a large scale to date. We hope that these new, simpler processes - which have been designed and developed in partnership with the industry - will encourage more companies to invest, particularly in parts of the UK that aren't already served by high-speed networks."