Devon UK Council Reaffirms Commitment to Broadband Rollout

The recent cancellation of UK ISP Gigaclear’s “full fibre” (FTTP) rollout contract under the Connecting Devon and Somerset project (here) has left many rural areas with concerns. As a result the Devon County Council has now moved to assure them that the roll-out of “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) is continuing.

In an update posted yesterday, councillors say they have been “assured” that the work is continuing on delivering superfast broadband in Devon and they again reaffirmed their plan to launch a new procurement process for the problematic Phase 2 areas this autumn, with an invitation to tender being expected to follow in December 2019 to identify new suppliers.

As we reported earlier in the week, the outcome of this supplier hunt is unlikely to be known until the end of 2020, which means that no new rollout will probably begin until sometime in 2021. Despite this the roll-out under CDS is on-going via other providers (Openreach (BT) and Airband) – through existing contracts in other areas and new extensions to those.

Interestingly it was also noted that some 15,000 of the 47,000 premises that Gigaclear was originally contracted to cover had “already been covered by other commercial providers” while the ISP delayed. We’d be interested to know how many of those deployments occurred as a direct response to the delays (i.e. strategic commercial opportunism) or were already planned before the delays became public knowledge last year.

Some may also recall that, due to the Gigaclear problems, CDS has been working with the Government on a proposed plan to secure an extension for £18.7m of public funding to March 2023 (beyond the original December 2020 end date). As previously reported and echoed again below, a decision is expected next month, although the council was keen to show that a positive outcome is likely and said that this is now considered by Building Digital UK (DCMS) to be a “top priority in the agency’s spending commitments.”

Rufus Gilbert, Devon Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills, said:

“BDUK and the Digital Minister are conscious of the timetable to launch the new CDS procurement process. We understand that Government decisions on capital funding for broadband programmes are to be made in November.

CDS funding will deliver new coverage this year, the commercial sector will be delivering more, and we would want to see any new services procured by CDS completing as soon as possible. Ultimately, that will depend on the total funding available, how long the Government extends its funding, the number of homes and businesses we will need to help, and what providers can do for the money on offer. This is all part of the work we’re doing now with BDUK.

Importantly, the commercial sector will also be continuing its investment in new broadband infrastructure. CDS will also be stepping up its community engagement to promote, help and advise those interested in taking up the national broadband voucher schemes.”

So far the CDS programme has helped to extend the coverage of superfast broadband to around 300,000 extra premises (nearly 1 million when you include separate commercial deployments across both counties), which exist in areas that the private sector either wouldn’t have connected through its own investment (i.e. no public match funding) or where they might have taken years longer to reach if left to their own devices.

Yesterday’s update also included a summary of related CDS projects and plans, which is mostly nothing new but does include a few updated statistics.

Active CDS Projects

– The CDS Community Challenge Fund will be launched later this year, following successful pilots in Devon and Somerset. A £295,000 fund will enable local communities to have a hands-on say in new networks for their areas. It’s anticipated that between six and eight more community solutions can be supported and work has begun to identify opportunities, working with a range of suppliers.

– A new collaboration with BT will extend coverage in rural areas, delivering full fibre (FTTP) to a further 2,000 premises across Devon and Somerset. This is due to the take-up of CDS-funded broadband services being nearly 60% – compared with a national average of 52.4% – which, thanks to the Government’s gainshare agreement with BT, is generating millions of pounds of new money to invest in expanding the CDS coverage (we believe this to be worth around £6m previous public money being returned via BT for reinvestment to expand coverage).

– Airband is continuing to make good progress with its roll-out superfast wireless broadband for CDS in northern and west Devon. CDS-funded contracts with Airband have so far delivered superfast access to over 12,000 homes and businesses. It is also providing a network to serve around a further 5,000 hard to reach properties in Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks.

– CDS and BDUK are also working closely together to ensure as many residents and businesses have the opportunity to benefit from the Government’s national broadband voucher schemes.

– CDS is also working with the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership and other partners to develop a Digital Strategy and a refreshed Local Broadband Plan.

We should also highlight this week’s launch of another commercial alternative network in the region by Jurassic Fibre (here), which has openly talked about holding an aspiration to use £250m of investment in order to cover 350,000 premises across poorly served parts of Dorset, Devon and Somerset in England .