BDUK Opens Survey for ISPs Seeking to Extend UK Broadband Cover

The Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office has moved to compliment last week’s much debated Industry Day event (here, here and here), which discussed options for extending superfast broadband coverage to the “hardest to reach areas of the UK“, by making a new public survey available for ISPs.

The meeting itself, which involved a variety of different Communication Providers (ISPs, altnets, mobile operators etc.) and the government, was setup at short notice to discuss how the BDUK framework might be changed in order for the government to spend an extra £250m on extending the reach of superfast broadband (25Mbps+) from its original target of 90% and out to 95% by 2017.

An interesting Presentation Document (PDF) from the event has now been published that offers some additional background on what was discussed. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has also made an online questionnaire available that’s “intended to inform the appraisal of options and does not imply the commencement of any formal procurement activity“. The survey is aimed at CPs / ISPs.

Unfortunately the government has already suggested that smaller ISPs (altnets) might end up having to wait until after BT’s BDUK funded deployment is complete before being able to fill in the gaps via the £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF), which could leave some projects stuck in limbo for several years.

In the meantime it’s possible that the BDUK framework could be adjust around a more commercial focus, which might give non-BT ISPs an ability to bid for contracts. But it could equally end up merely extending the existing framework without any real changes.

BDUK Web Survey
https://dcms.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0dOpOtBAudLqfAN