To contract fiber, all you have to do is check the coverage in your building or on your portal from the operator’s page and follow the steps indicated by each company. But we cannot always do it because we do not have the installation made in the house (old building blocks) or because a neighbor does not want there to be cables on the facade of the building. At any step, can a neighbor stop us from installing fiber? We review what the laws say or who is right.
In the majority of current and newly constructed buildings, the fiber installation is in the building, so we only have to hire a technician who does what corresponds in our home but not in the common areas. If the floor is new you will not even need to “open” the wall of your house since normally the installation will be prepared for a technician to arrive and connect the cables . But this is not always the case. We may not have fiber installation in the building and we need to request it.
Can a neighbor stop us from installing fiber?
Do we need all the neighbors, in the Community of Owners Board, to give us their approval? Does the operator need an authorization to put the box on a facade? Do you need a vote to put fiber in the building because a single neighbor wants it? Depends. There are many factors to take into account …
We have to bear in mind that the LPH or Horizontal Property Law that indicates that any installation in the building must be authorized by a third of the owners . That is, you can consult the president or the Community of Owners about the installation and the vote will take place. If a third of the Community of Owner approves the installation, they will bear the expenses in charge of it. However, if the installation is still denied, we could, in accordance with the Telecommunications Law, demand our right to install. In this case, the expenses would be out of your pocket (if the operator does not take care of it) but you can do it.
Nor is it necessary to request municipal permission (if it is not a protected building), a responsible declaration is sufficient.
Without asking for authorization since 2013
Until 2013, the neighborhood communities could refuse the installation of fiber optics in the building, alleging all kinds of reasons or preventing the wiring. But since that year, operators do not need to have a permit from public authorities to deploy fiber optics on the street thanks to a change in the law. As we stated in a 2013 article in ADSLZone: “Operators will no longer need to obtain a permit from public authorities to carry out a fiber optic deployment on the street, instead, it is replaced by a responsible statement from the operator. All operators and public organizations have the obligation to give up their infrastructures to collaborate in the deployment of this type of network ”
According to Royal Decree Law 1/1998 on infrastructure in buildings for access to telecommunication services: «b) In the event that the infrastructure does not exist, it is not able to provide the service to which the co-owner wishes to access or the lessee or a new one is not installed or the pre-existing one is not adapted in the aforementioned period of three months, the communicator may carry out the work that allows him to receive the corresponding telecommunications services. If any other co-owner or tenant later requests to benefit from the installation of the new common infrastructures or the adaptation of the pre-existing ones that are carried out under this article, they may be authorized ”(…)
On other facades …
Not only will they be able to use facades from the neighborhood community, but third-party facades can be used if there is no other deployment alternative. That is, if there is no node in your street number that we can use to contract the fiber, you can resort to wiring other building facades other than your own in case there is no other solution.
Occupation of private property
If we find the reason that the neighbor does not want the cable to pass through his facade (such as the one on the ground floor) with the law in hand, the neighbor has little to argue. If there is no possibility of passing the cable through another interior channel, the facade is the only option that remains, and by law you are obliged to accept it, as established in article 29 of the General Telecommunications Law, Law 9 / 2014, of May 9 , which says:
Operators will have the right, under the terms of this chapter, to occupy private property when it is strictly necessary for the installation of the network to the extent provided in the technical project presented and provided that there are no other technically or economically viable alternatives.
“The facade of the building is not private property”
In addition, technically the facade of the building is not private property, since it is a common element that is part of the community. On the other hand, article 34 says that:
Operators must make use of underground pipelines or inside buildings that allow the deployment and exploitation of public electronic communications networks. In cases in which there are no such pipelines or their use is not possible for technical or economic reasons, operators may carry out aerial deployments following the previously existing ones.
Likewise, in the same cases, operators may deploy cables and equipment that constitute public electronic communications networks and their associated resources through facades, although for this they must use, as far as possible, the deployments, conduits, facilities and previously installed equipment.
As we can see, the operator has the right to pass the cable through the facade if there is no other viable option , even if it is only a neighbor who has requested the service throughout the building.
Facilitate deployment as much as possible
The General Telecommunications Law of 2014 came into force in order to make deployment easier for operators, avoiding problems such as those we have mentioned with neighbors, as well as simplifying the deployment process and having the least possible impediments. If the building has conduits prepared for wiring, these must go inside. If they do not have them, with the law in hand, they can go outside without any problem.
If the case occurs in single-family homes , and the neighbor does not want it to pass through their property, you do need authorization from the neighbor, although you can also talk to the technicians so that they can pass the cable elsewhere.
