Top Telecommunications FAQs

1 - What are the key laws governing telecommunications masts and wayleaves in the UK?

The main legislation includes the Communications Act 2003 and the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022.

The Communications Act 2003 contains Schedule 3A, the Electronic Communications Code, which is the primary legislation governing phone masts and wayleaves. It sets out the statutory rights granted to the phone operators and the way that they can acquire rights and be evicted.

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 has then introduced some more recent changes into the Electronic Communications Code.

The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is also relevant to some telecom mast installations but not all of them. It depends on the type of lease/ agreement each time.

2 - Do telecom operators need an OFCOM licence to operate in the UK?

Under the Wireless Telegraphy Act, mobile phone radio operators typically require a licence unless exempt. OFCOM manages licensing and spectrum allocation in the UK.

All of the major phone providers hold OFCOM licences, so companies like Vodafone, EE etc. There are also many other companies on the list of licence holders that are less well known.

The list is available on the OFCOM website under "register of persons with powers under the Electronic Communications Code".

3 - What are Code rights under the Electronic Communications Code?

The Electronic Communications Code grants operators wide-ranging property rights that are similar to those afforded to other utility companies (electricity, gas, and water companies, for example).

The Code essentially gives operators the ability to demand their way onto any land to install a mast or run a wayleave cable. The operators will typically negotiate with a landowner first but, if agreement is not forthcoming, they have a right under the Code to apply to the Property Tribunal (a specialist property court) to force a lease/ agreement without the landowner's consent. It is a form of compulsory leasing.

Once on any land, the Code also means that the operator can remain in occupation after the agreement expires and has the right to renew.

A landowner can only evict electronic communications apparatus on limited grounds, such as where the landowner intends to redevelop the land in question or if the landowner can demonstrate that it is suffering prejudice which cannot be compensated for in money.

4 - What are telecoms landlords’ rights when negotiating mast or access agreements?

A landowner is entitled to insist on any agreement being made on 'reasonable' terms.

Telecoms operators are entitled nowadays to demand new agreements at low rents, which means that most landowners would prefer not to have them on their land. Against this background, a landlord typically wants to ensure that any agreement is as flexible as possible so that the apparatus can be evicted as and when a landowner satisfies the statutory grounds for eviction (being redevelopment usually). A landowner also wants minimal obligations and minimal risk.

5 - How can telecoms solicitors assist with code agreements and disputes?

Birketts has a specialist team of telecoms advisers. We only act for landowners, and we have experience of dealing with all types of agreements and evictions, having dealt with a high number of leases and property tribunal cases.

Our team can guide landowners through the statutory process and on the terms of the agreement to ensure that the agreement is as balanced and reasonable as possible.

6 - How can you evict a phone mast or fibre cable?

Evicting telecoms apparatus can be difficult and time-consuming. As the phone operators have statutory protection, a landowner must follow the statutory eviction process to validly end the operator’s statutory rights. The typical notice period is 18 months (which is longer than most lease agreements). The eviction process often involves two stages, with a landowner having to serve 18 months’ notice initially, followed by another notice once the first one expires. A landowner must satisfy the statutory grounds of eviction to be able to successfully bring the Code agreement to an end.

7 - What rent do the operators pay for a phone mast?

The rents paid by operators for phone masts are generally very low. The law changed in 2017 with the introduction of Schedule 3A of the Communications Act 2003. The Act contains an artificial rent valuation for new phone mast leases, essentially asking what else a landowner could rent the land for if it was not being used by a phone mast. In lots of cases, the answer is that there is no market for a small area of land taken up by a mast, and so it means that the operators typically only pay modest sums. For a rent in a farmer’s field, the rents can generally be as low as £1,000 per annum. For a rooftop site on a residential building, the rent is currently often around £6,580 per annum. These are guidelines only, and the figures are constantly changing.