Hertfordshire to Start Expanded Fibre Broadband Rollout 6 Months Early

The Connected Counties project has announced that it will bring forward the start of their Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) contract in Hertfordshire by six months, which means that BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network should reach 98% coverage by June 2018 instead of 2019.

The original contract, which is actually a joint project between two counties (Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire), aimed to extend the reach of BT’s faster FTTC/P infrastructure to 90% of local premises by April 2016 (i.e. benefiting an additional 60,000 premises).

Happily the Hertfordshire side of this scheme was given a boost in May 2015 with the signing of a second contract (here), which would begin at the end of contract one (April 2016) and then expand coverage to 95% of Hertfordshire by December 2017 and finally 98% by 2019; an additional 46,000 premises are set to benefit.

However we’ve recently learnt that the plan for the new contract has been moved forward, reaching 95% of Hertfordshire premises by March 2017 and then “over” 98% by the end of June 2018. Some parts of the scheme are thus now running more than six months ahead of schedule.

David Williams, Cabinet Member for Herts County Council, said:

“Access to reliable, fast internet is essential for homes and businesses in Hertfordshire. Businesses rely on being able to connect with customers quickly and through a range of digital technologies, and home users are increasingly making the most of online streaming services, so a good connection is key. It’s great news that the roll-out of the Connected Counties programme is now ahead of its scheduled releases and more people will have the opportunity to make use of it sooner.”

In keeping with this the project’s related Coverage Map and Postcodes List have both been updated. It’s unclear why the timetable has been moved forward, although we have seen some other BDUK schemes (e.g. Worcestershire) reporting similar improvements and these are perhaps based on findings from BTOpenreach’s initial engineering surveys.