Nottinghamshire UK Set to Approve Phase 2 “Fibre Broadband” Rollout

The £20m Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire project in England, which is currently working with BTOpenreach to make “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services available to 95% of local premises by the end of March 2016, is tomorrow expected to approve a £5.2m+ Phase 2 extension that will push coverage to 97%.

The County Council’s Policy Committee is expected to green light the expanded Superfast Extension Programme (SEP), which will almost certainly end up being delivered by BTOpenreach again (just like Phase 1). Some £2.63m is expected to come from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK budget and this will be matched by another £2.63m from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal. At this time we do not yet know what, if any, contribution BT might make (dependent upon the final contract).

At present the Phase 1 contract is expected to help make the high-speed broadband connectivity available to an additional 52,000 local homes and businesses (so far the project has completed coverage for 25,000), which upon completion will be split as follows.

Phase 1 – Projected District-by-District “Fibre Broadband” Availability
• Ashfield – 97.2% coverage (54,167 homes and businesses)
• Bassetlaw – 88.1% coverage (46,556 homes and businesses)
• Broxtowe – 97.6% coverage (50,367 homes and businesses)
• Gedling – 98.4% coverage (52,320 homes and businesses)
• Mansfield – 97.7% coverage (49,077 homes and businesses)
• Newark and Sherwood – 88.8% coverage (48,358 homes and businesses)
• Rushcliffe – 92.1% coverage (45.527 homes and businesses)

The Phase 2 BBfN contract would naturally target more rural areas, such as those in the districts of Bassetlaw, Newark and Sherwood and Rushcliffe where availability after contract one is not as high as elsewhere in the county.

Diana Meale, Chair of the Councils Economic Development Committee, said:

“Good availability of broadband for homes and businesses is a top priority for the County Council. Living and working in one of the best connected counties in the country has numerous benefits for local residents, economic growth and job creation.

By the end of contract two, our aim would be to have a minimum 95% coverage in every district in Nottinghamshire, with an average of 97% of homes and businesses countywide being able to access fibre broadband.

We’ve made fantastic progress on contract one so far, with around 25,000 homes and businesses now able to access fibre-broadband because of the Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire programme. The feedback we have received from residents and companies who have signed up to new services in the areas covered so far has been brilliant – people are telling us what a difference it has made to the way they communicate, learn, have fun and do business.

Our ultimate aim is for every home and business to have good broadband availability. Contract two is another important and significant step towards that ultimate goal.”

The tender process to find a supplier has already started and the plan is to enter into a contract by the end of March 2015, with completion of Phase 2 being preliminary set for 2018 (i.e. later than the Government’s 2017 target). As usual it’s unclear precisely how many of the planned 97% will actually receive the Government’s required “superfast” download speeds of at least 24Mbps+.