UK Government Consult on Extending “Local Full Fibre” Broadband Coverage

The Government has today launched a new ‘Call for Evidence’, which seeks to gather feedback on the “best use of public funding” to encourage further and faster UK deployment of “full fibre” (FTTP/H) style ultrafast / Gigabit-capable broadband networks in partnership with local areas.

The new consultation is linked to the recent Autumn Statement 2016 announcement, which among other things saw the Chancellor (Philip Hammond) commit an additional £400 million of public funding towards a new Digital Infrastructure Fund (DIF) that must be at least matched by private investment and is being setup to help foster the deployment of “full fibre” networks over the next 4 years (full details).

Matt Hancock MP, UK Digital Minister, said:

“This Call for Evidence sets out a number of approaches we can take to stimulate the market to extend full fibre networks in areas across the UK, including full fibre business vouchers, public sector data aggregation and supply side approaches”

At present it’s estimated that 91% of premises within the United Kingdom are within reach of a “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) connection and the on-going Broadband Delivery UK programme is aiming to extend this to 95% by the end of 2017 and then 97% by 2020.

However the new DIF is separate from the BDUK programme and has been designed to help foster the new ultrafast (1Gbps+) generation of pure fibre optic based alternative network (AltNet) providers (e.g. Cityfibre, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear etc.).

As a result the Government are keen to know more about any local approaches that have been taken to the deployment of full fibre networks, as well as what lessons were learnt and how such networks might be extended (reflecting both urban and rural deployments). All related ISPs may wish to contribute to this.

Various approaches to distribution of the funding are also being considered, such as direct funding in uneconomic areas, public sector demand aggregation or a voucher scheme for private sector demand aggregation. The ‘Call for Evidence’ also examines what options might exist for making more public sector assets available (e.g. street furniture) to network operators, which is something that we’ve already seen used quite a bit for public WiFi and 4G deployments.

Finally, the document suggests the possibility of a pilot that would focus on “replacing all existing copper connections to premises with full fibre connections, with customers migrating to services on new full fibre networks in an area.” The Government thinks that this would effectively aggregate all of the existing demand from the existing operator and thus “improve the commercial case for full fibre deployment.”

Mind you Openreach (BT) has already done something similar to the above in Deddington (here) via their Fibre-Only Exchange (FOX) trial in 2012/13, but expanding this to other areas may risk complications and competition concerns from unbundled (LLU) ISPs like TalkTalk and Sky Broadband. Not to mention that the DIF isn’t fully intended for BT’s use, while AltNet’s don’t generally have copper networks that need replacing.

Extract from the Consultation

“This would improve the commercial case for full fibre deployment. Nevertheless, the consequences for consumers and businesses would be significant and pilot projects may be a suitable next step to investigate the impacts on customers relative to the impact on the economics of fibre deployment.

This would require agreement from the existing operator for an intention to pilot the switch off of the copper network in an area. This call for evidence therefore focuses on the case for pilots rather than for full copper switch off on a national basis.”

At this stage it’s only a ‘Call for Evidence’, which means that the Government are merely sounding out a number of potential approaches, as well as still remaining open to the consideration of different methods and suggestions from the wider industry.

Responses to this ‘Call for Evidence’ must be submitted by Tuesday 31st January 2017 and further details can be found in the following PDF document.

Extending Local Full Fibre Networks Call for Evidence
https://www.gov.uk/uploads/../Extending_Local_Full_Fibre_Networks.pdf