North Lincolnshire UK Finishes First BT Fibre Broadband Rollout Contract

The Northern Lincs Broadband (NLBB) project has just become the latest Broadband Delivery UK scheme to complete its first contract, which means that BT’s superfast broadband (24Mbps+) services have successfully been put within reach of an additional 31,000 local homes and businesses in North Lincolnshire (England).

The original aim was that 92.5% of premises in each area would gain access to superfast broadband via FTTC/P “fibre broadband” technology by spring 2015 and BT appears to have achieved this on target, having just completed its 154th street cabinet upgrade in the village of Gunness (the first to go live in March 2014 was around Scawby Brook).

Liz Redfern, Leader of North Lincolnshire Council, said:

“The main phase of the Northern Lincs Broadband project has been a great success. It was in the top six nationally for completing the rollout the quickest, which is a brilliant achievement. The team, working alongside BT, worked extremely hard to ensure the rollout of high-speed broadband reached the target of 31,000 on schedule. We have received fantastic feedback from residents and businesses that can now access superfast broadband – especially in rural areas. They are now able to take advantage of the variety of benefits that high-speed fibre broadband brings.

We haven’t forgotten about those areas that still don’t have access to high-speed broadband though. We are now planning the second phase of the project to reach even more areas across North Lincolnshire. We will be releasing further details soon.”

But as with other BDUK projects the work does not stop and a second Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) was signed with BT a few months ago (here), which will extend the service to another 4,000 premises. This is supported by funding of £1.18m from BDUK and the total contract value is now said to be worth £1.99m (BT’s investment in the next phase is capital expenditure only and the council does not appear to have contributed).

Detailed rollout plans are expected to be announced in the “coming months“, with the first communities expected to benefit from March 2016 onwards. Overall this should put the local authority within reach of the Government’s national 95% coverage target for 2017/18.

Not forgetting that Quickline also have a BDUK funded wireless broadband trial in the area (here).