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UPD2 Public Accounts Committee Seek Clarity on Welsh Broadband Plan

Tuesday, Nov 24th, 2015 (8:43 am) - Score 382

The National Assembly for Wales, specifically its Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has criticised the state aid fuelled Superfast Cymru project with BT for failing to provide full and clear information about the Welsh roll-out plan for “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services.

At present the project is currently working to make the new connectivity available to 96% of Wales by the end of 2016, which should benefit an additional 691,000 homes and businesses (approx. 500,000 have already been completed and 69,800 of those use to be on Exchange Only Lines). After that a second contract will extend the service to another 42,000 premises (here) by June 2017; together both deals are set to gobble around £250m of taxpayers money.

Meanwhile the precise coverage of “superfast” (24Mbps+) speeds has always been a bit of a grey area for the contract, although the original deal required that a minimum of 95% of “all premises in the intervention area” should be capable of gaining access to such speeds, with 40% being within reach of at least 100Mbps.

A related report from the Wales Audit Office (WAO), which was published in May 2015, found that Superfast Cymru had made “reasonable progress” (here). The report also said that the “procurement and management of the [contract] has been generally effective, with appropriate controls in place to manage costs and delivery,” although it did raise concerns about some aspects of the deal (e.g. the ability to deliver on that 100Mbps+ promise).

Unfortunately the new report, which we have not been able to view in full yet because the relevant website has been down all morning, discovered that the scheme provided conflicting information on service availability / coverage plans and that in turn has contributed towards consumer frustration.

Darren Millar MP, Chairman of the NAW’s Public Accounts Committee, said:

What we heard during our inquiry is that people are frustrated about what information is available to them in terms of if, or when, they will be connected. Sometimes that information is conflicted and has knock-on impacts for the decisions they make about where they will live and how their business can grow.

We want to see a much clearer communications campaign from the Welsh Government and the Superfast Cymru supplier, BT, to ensure people have confidence in this scheme and know what to expect from it.”

In fairness deploying any significant new infrastructure or upgrades to a major telecoms network can be fraught with difficulty, such as unexpected problems that often don’t show up until after the physical engineering / build phase begins. As such the roll-out plan is always a tentative one (subject to change), which can affect upgrade dates in both a positive and or negative way.

Equally until a target for 100% coverage has been set then there will always be an area of doubt and concern among those in the final few percent, who still don’t know for sure whether or not they will ever benefit from fixed line superfast broadband connectivity. The somewhat limited Superfast Cymru coverage map probably doesn’t help matters.

Apparently the Welsh PAC also found that the deadline to supply an agreed number of premises with “high-speed broadband” was extended by 2 years, with little in the way of financial penalties for the supplier, BTOpenreach. However without seeing the report we cannot be sure of exactly what this references (hopefully they fix the website soon).

In terms of targets, the original Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan (WIIP) from 2012 touted a plan to roll-out 30Mbps+ superfast broadband services to reach 100% of the country’s businesses by the middle of 2016 and homes by 2020. But when Superfast Cymru finally got under-way in 2013 it only contained a 96% target that was being touted for the end of 2015 instead of the end of 2016 as it is today (“fibre” coverage is currently 80%+).

Put another way, assuming they do hit the 96% goal by late 2016 (looks highly likely), then the current project will be running roughly one year behind schedule. On the other hand this depends upon whether or not you consider that the original ambition for 96% coverage actually reflected 30Mbps+ speeds or merely the raw footprint of “fibre broadband” (inc. sub-30Mbps speeds).

Certainly it’s easy to see why consumers and politicians alike might be finding some of the goals and coverage expectations confusing.

UPDATE 11:19am

The Welsh Assembly’s website is finally back online and thus the related report can be downloaded here, but if you can’t be bothered to read through the 31 pages then here’s a quick summary of its key recommendations.

Welsh Public Accounts Committee Recommendations

Recommendation 1. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government provides assurances that the project extension will not lead to further delays for premises that were included in the original contract and continues to monitor BTs progress to ensure the project is delivered within the revised timescale.

Recommendation 2. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government provide details on its scheme to replace Access to Broadband Cymru and provide access to next generation broadband to all premises across Wales.

Recommendation 3. The Committee recommends that Welsh Government actively liaise with service providers to identify these premises and find a solution to delivering next generation broadband to these difficult to reach premises.

Recommendation 4. The Committee recommends that an update be provided by Welsh Government on the progress of rollout to difficult to reach premises no later than September 2016 including:

– an update on the achievement of 40 per cent of premises at 100Mbps;
– information on when residents will be told if that are not likely to receive next generation broadband through the Superfast Cymru contract;
– details of the affordable options available to them;
– the number of ‘premises passed’; and
– an update on the recommendations contained in the Auditor General for Wales’s report.

Recommendation 5. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government provide confirmation on the success of the Superfast Cymru rollout and if they have been able to draw down all the ERDF funding available as a result.

Recommendation 6. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government should reflect on lessons learned from the overall planning and management of the Superfast Cymru contract and reflect these lessons in its own guidance on programme and project management.

Recommendation 7. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government ensures that all relevant staff receive refresher training as required on contract negotiations and that all guidance is regularly reviewed and available to staff.

Recommendation 8. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government works with BT, as a priority, to improve the effectiveness of its communication strategy, including the website, for the remainder of the rollout and that the Welsh Government provide the Committee with an update on changes made to the strategy to address our concerns.

Recommendation 9. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government give consideration, in principle, that as a minimum, details of aspirational targets and expectations as to when they should be met, should be included in future contracts.

Recommendation 10. The Committee recommends that the Committee be provided with an update on work to improve communications and marketing of the benefits of access to superfast broadband no later than September 2016.

UPDATE 3:56pm

Sadly there’s still no comment from BT or the Welsh Government, although we have been given the following statement.

A Spokesperson for BT said:

We are currently reading the findings of the report and will respond to its recommendations in due course.

When combined with BT’s commercial roll-out more than 80% of homes and businesses across Wales can now access fibre broadband. We will continue to work hard with our partners to increase this figure to ensure that superfast broadband reaches as many properties in Wales as quickly as possible.”

UPDATE 25th Nov 2015

The Welsh Government has also given us a quick statement.

A Welsh Government spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

We will consider the recommendations in the report carefully and respond in due course. So far Superfast Cymru has provided access to superfast broadband to over 521,000 premises in Wales that otherwise would not have been able to receive it.”

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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