As predicted last month (here) the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire county councils in England have agreed to hand a major new broadband roll-out contract to rural ISP Gigaclear, which will deploy their “ultrafast” 1Gbps FTTP network to thousands of additional homes and businesses.
The decision was officially confirmed last week, although we don’t expect to see any details on the roll-out plan until Gigaclear has put pen to paper. The deal for Lots 3c, 3d, 3e and 4 (see below) will involve public funding of up of £5.14m from Gloucestershire County Council and £7.56m from Herefordshire Council, while Gigaclear is expected to contribute up to £29.2m of private investment.
At present we still don’t know for certain who will win the other two lots (Lot 3a – Cheltenham and Gloucester / Lot 3b – Hereford) because the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK office is busy conducting some due diligence checks.
However the councils, which jointly form the Fastershire scheme, have still agreed to award both contracts to the “highest scoring supplier” from last year’s procurement process, albeit only once the BDUK checking has completed. These two have a total value of £910K (public investment).
So far the Fastershire project has helped an additional 97,000 premises in both counties to be put within reach of a faster broadband service, albeit mostly via Openreach’s (BT) slower 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology and just a little FTTP. The project’s “ultimate aim” isn’t very specific and merely states “that by 2018 there will be access to fast broadband for all who need it“.
Outside of that Gigaclear also holds the contracts to roll-out their ultrafast FTTP network to 6,495 premises in the Cotswolds area, as well as 2,600 in the Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire) and Golden Valley (Herefordshire).
We note that overall 15% of the properties in Herefordshire are now said to have access to “full-fibre” and growing, yet the overall coverage of “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) networks in both counties still seems to be sitting shy of the 90% goal (it’s at about 90% in Gloucestershire but Herefordshire is only on around 82%).
The Councils Decision
Authorise the Commissioning Director: Communities and Infrastructure, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and Director of Strategic Finance, to:
(a) Award a contract to the highest scoring supplier (namely “Gigaclear”) that was identified in a competitive procurement process carried out by Herefordshire Council, (in its role on the joint Gloucestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council Fastershire project), for the deployment of superfast broadband in Gloucestershire (and Herefordshire).
Such a contract shall require Gigaclear to (i) deliver fibre broadband infrastructure within the areas described in Lot 3c, (South Herefordshire & West Gloucestershire), Lot 3d, (North Gloucestershire), Lot 3e, (South Gloucestershire) and Lot 4, (North Herefordshire) and (ii) provide gap funding in respect thereof.
The maximum value of such a contract, (for Lots 3c, 3d, 3e and 4), shall be £12.7m, (made up of £5.14m to be contributed by Gloucestershire County Council and £7.56m to be contributed by Herefordshire Council). Such a contract shall include an option to increase Herefordshire Council’s Lot 3c subsidy contribution by no more than £1.4m in accordance with the original published subsidy limit set out in the ITT.
Such an option may be exercised only if a delivery plan has been agreed by Gloucestershire County Council’s Commissioning Director. The term of such contract shall expire seven years after the final infrastructure payment is made, (anticipated to be December 2019). The said contract shall not be entered into with Gigaclear until Herefordshire Council has provided its approval, therefore;
(b) Subject to the positive conclusion of BDUKs due diligence, to award a contract to the highest scoring supplier that was identified in a competitive procurement process carried out between September and November 2016 for the deployment of superfast broadband in Gloucestershire (and Herefordshire). Such contract shall require the highest scoring supplier to i) deliver fibre broadband infrastructure within the areas described in Lot 3a (Cheltenham and Gloucester) and Lot 3b (Hereford).
The value of such contract shall be £910k (made up of £0.691m to be contributed by Gloucestershire County Council and £0.219m to be contributed by Herefordshire Council). The term of such contract shall expire seven years after the final infrastructure payment (anticipated to be December 2019). The said contract shall not be entered into with the highest scoring supplier until Herefordshire Council has provided its approval therefore;
(c) Take all operational decisions in relation to (i) the approved £0.58m of uncommitted funds detailed as “Future Procurements and Contract Extensions”, (ii) further ERDF and EAFRD European Funding (subject to approval); and (iii) the possible reinvestment of any underspend from previous stages of the approved Fastershire Broadband Strategy.
No doubt we’ll get some more details on precisely which areas will benefit in due course.
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