Broadband rollouts in parts of Europe are likely to get substantially cheaper and easier, after a committee of the European Parliament backed plans to encourage access to existing infrastructure.

When you’re laying fiber in the ground, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to do it in ducts that already exist – sewage pipes and drainage systems, for example – particularly as most of the cost of a rollout lies in civil works.

Countries such as the UK and France already promote this kind of infrastructure-sharing, but now the same idea seems set to spread across the EU. On Thursday, the European Parliament’s industry committee said it had approved a draft law that would give broadband firms the right to “access ‘promptly’, via a single information point, at least information on the location, route, size, type and current use, name of owner and a contact point for existing infrastructure.”

They will…