ALTERNATIVE TELECOM operators have lobbied the Department of Communications to create an independent body that would own and manage communications ducting that follows roads and railways.

Ducting is piping that can be used to channel telecoms cables, with access points at regular intervals so that customer premises can be reached with high-speed broadband services.

Gary Keogh, managing director of Colt Telecom and a member of the Alto group that met with the department, said it costs an average of €400-€500 a metre to dig up a road in Dublin and lay pipes. "As a nation we are building huge complex infrastructure, but no one is thinking about telecoms," said Mr Keogh. "It should be part of the planning regulations for new housing developments that they include telecoms infrastructure."

Telecoms operators say that the National Roads Authority has been reluctant to make ducting available along motorway routes, citing health and safety reasons and possible delays to the completion of road projects.

Mr Keogh said that if ducting was available to telecoms companies along the Luas green line, which runs through the south of Dublin city, triple play (TV, telephone and broadband) services would be available to homes in those suburbs.

Liam O'Halloran, chairman of Alto, said the suggestion had been well received but the "proof of the pudding" would come with the publication of the Government's broadband strategy next Thursday.