Lincolnshire UK Confirms GBP4.6m BT Clawback for Better Broadband

The Onlincolnshire project, which is working to roll-out FTTC/P based “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) services to “at least” 89% of all premises in Lincolnshire (England) by April 2016, has confirmed that clawback from BT will result in £4.6m being returned to help further boost coverage.

As a quick recap, the clawback (gain share) mechanism in related Broadband Delivery UK contracts requires BTOpenreach to return part of the investment when take-up of the new service passes beyond the 20% mark and this is currently said to be worth up to £129m across the United Kingdom.

Many of the related BDUK projects have already confirmed their clawback levels, including the semi-separate Northern Lincs Broadband scheme that recently put the figure at £1.1 million (here). But a new report on Trefor from Steve Brookes, Onlincolnshire’s Programme Manager, confirms that the wider county scheme will now benefit from a total of £4.6 million in clawback.

Steve Brookes said:

“This in itself is testament to the confidence [BT] feel regarding take across the county as claw-back under the contract is scheduled to be paid on a 2 yearly basis across the 10 years from project start. This money will be fully reinvested into the broadband programme to further enhance Superfast broadband coverage.

We are in discussion with BT regarding the early use of some underspend from the current project and we are pleased to note that they have agreed to look at 20 structures (localities presumably Tref) initially with a view to establishing feasibility/cost etc. and then, hopefully moving to an early deployment.”

At present the original contract has already expanded the reach of “fibre broadband” to 137,817 premises passed and that puts it close to the completion target of around 160,000. In addition, local take-up of related premises in the intervention area reached 19.86% in September 2015 and this is now understood to have exceeded the crucial 20% mark.

A second Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) contract was also signed with BTOpenreach during May 2015 (here), which will extend “superfast broadband” coverage across Lincolnshire by an additional 4,801 premises (note: the overall fibre broadband footprint, including sub-24Mbps areas, will grow by a total of 6,098 premises).