Gigaclear Admit Significant Broadband Delays in Devon and Somerset

Rural focused fibre optic ISP Gigaclear has this evening apologised after it admitted that their state aid supported roll-out of a new Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in Devon and Somerset had suffered delays. As a result the deployment is now running “significantly behind schedule.”

At present the related Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) project is working with Openreach (BT), Gigaclear and wireless ISP Airband to extend the reach of “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) across the two rural counties and overall they aim to cover 96% of premises by 2020 (currently 86%). A mix of FTTC, FTTP “full fibre” and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) based broadband technologies are being used (see here and here).

Back in June 2018 the £171m CDS project posted an update (here), which revealed that Gigaclear’s phase 2 roll-out in the area had been slowed by the fallout from Carillion’s (contractor) collapse. Nevertheless the ISP still expected to complete on time. Telent took over from the Carilliion telent partnership and the provider also introduced additional resources (e.g. McNicholas part of the Kier group) as well as other contractors to compensate.

Sadly it appears as if those delays, which became “apparent at the beginning of the year,” were more significant than first reported. Today’s update from CDS notes that “fundamental issues existed including management of subcontractors, build methodology and capacity within the team” (e.g. it’s been difficult to find enough skilled engineers, which is an issue we’ve highlighted a few times before).

The gravity of the situation is understood to have surfaced at a meeting last month and since then Gigaclear has been busy formulating a new plan.

Mike Surrey, Gigaclear CEO, said:

“On behalf of Gigaclear plc, I would like to apologise for the delays in delivering a full fibre network across rural Devon and Somerset. Whilst the first customers are now connected in East Devon, the project is running significantly behind schedule and we accept our performance to date has fallen short of the high standards that we set for ourselves.

However, with new ownership and with a new management team now in place, we have been able to review every aspect of this project in detail, to identify where problems have occurred, and to move quickly to put in place remedies to prevent them happening again. We would like to assure all stakeholders that Gigaclear will absorb any additional costs incurred and commit that there will not be any increases to the level of public subsidy.

The immediate measures include:

* A significant number of new regionally based staff in a variety of roles such as network planners and community liaison personnel have been appointed and trained to provide more on-the-ground support for residents. We are continually reviewing the requirement and will act quickly to add more where needed.

* Restructuring the roll-out to incorporate a range of new construction techniques that are focused on reducing delays, whilst continuing to deliver full fibre to the home.

* Changing our plans to minimise disruption on key transport routes, without impacting speed of delivery.

We share your frustrations that the delays are causing and would like to reassure you that we remain committed to delivering fast broadband services to the region.”

The situation means that any previously published deployment dates under the original plan, unless already delivered, should be ignored. Gigaclear is planning to present a new plan to CDS that they hope will “re-energise this rollout programme.” No doubt other local authorities, such as those that are also considering the ISP for future contracts, will be paying close attention to what happens next.

However the CDS team has posted a Q&A page on the problems, which notes that “Gigaclear is having delivery challenges in a number of other areas, however none of the other areas are subject to the delays which the CDS programme has experienced.” We should add that any overspend incurred as a result of all this will be Gigaclear’s problem to sort out with their contractors.

CDS Statement

Gigaclear has been instructed to provide a full remedial plan to improve its performance in each of the five CDS contract areas. CDS will consider the revised plans and whether the extent of the delays expected are acceptable.

Given the importance of the outcome for our communities, all options will be carefully considered and any final decision will be taken in discussion with our funding partners. We know that delivering broadband services is vital to our residents and businesses. We will reach a decision as quickly as possible, however, we need to ensure the right outcome and the best solution for our communities within the available options.

In the interim, Gigaclear is continuing its roll-out at the company’s own risk where work has started. Elsewhere, Airband’s roll-out is continuing with the support of CDS subsidy and is unaffected by today’s announcement.

In fairness Gigaclear wouldn’t be the first operator to run into problems with a major rural deployment of FTTP (e.g. Openreach’s challenges in Wales), although the reasons aren’t always the same and the scale of such issues can vary. In this case the ISP had a large contract and they needed to scale-up quickly in order to meet expectations, which clearly hasn’t gone quite according to plan.

The news will obviously come as a huge blow to those waiting for the new network to arrive. All those affected will now be waiting for the new plans to surface. On the upside CDS has been assured by Infracapital, the owners of Gigaclear, that they remain committed to deliver the five contracts and can provide the available funding needed to achieve this. This is hardly a surprise as doing anything else would have cast doubt over their other contracts. Credits to Thinkbroadband for pointing us to this development.