North Yorkshire UK Sets Out Revised Superfast Broadband Plan

The Superfast North Yorkshire project in England, which is working with Openreach (BT) to make superfast broadband (30Mbps+) services available to around 91% of local premises by June 2017, has put forward a revised Phase 3 roll-out plan that could extend local coverage to nearly 96% by mid-2019.

Like many other Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) linked schemes the future expansion of faster broadband connectivity in North Yorkshire had been delayed due to the lack of an EU State Aid agreement, which originally expired in June 2015 and a replacement was only recently agreed (here). As such the local authority has now prepared a revised plan.

The Phase 3 tender would bring together total public funding of around £20.5 million, which includes £12.18m coming from the council (a big chunk will come via clawback / gainshare from earlier contracts with BT due to high fibre take-up), £7.32m from BDUK and £1m from the European Regional Development Fund (assuming the Government allows this).

It’s noted that service take-up in the intervention area for Phases 1 and 2 at the end of April 2016 was 35% and has been following a steady trend of circa 0.7% per month increase. “The funding [outlined above] assumes that £7.76m of this will be recycled into Phase 3 but any excess over and above that can be used for targeting communities and / or further SFNY phases should Members be minded to do so,” states the latest council meeting (this is a reference to contract clawback from BT).

The eagle eyed among you will also notice that Phase 1 and 2 now look set to deliver 91% coverage of superfast broadband speeds, which is more than the previously predicted 88%. Otherwise it seems as if the aim is to award the new contract just before completion of the first two phases.

In addition, £622k has been earmarked from the residual Performance Reward Grant for targeting remote areas with alternative network solutions, such as community Fixed Wireless and or Satellite broadband schemes.

The cost of carrying out the full procurement of Phase 3 has separately been estimated at £3m. Related documents can be found here and here.