UPDATE Shropshire Pick Wireless ISP to Extend 30Mbps Rural Broadband

A further 14,000+ premises in the county of Shropshire (England) look set to gain access to a “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) connection over the next 3 years after the local authority selected fixed wireless ISP Airband to deliver the extra coverage under a new £11.2m contract.

So far the West Midlands county of Shropshire, which is a very challenging rural region (i.e. difficult / expensive to upgrade with new infrastructure), has struggled to deliver on the promise of its original Broadband Delivery UK contracts (Phase 1 and Phase 2a) with Openreach (BT); otherwise known as the Connecting Shropshire project.

Under Phase 1 an additional 59,000 homes and businesses were supposed to gain access to an FTTC/P based “fibre broadband” service by the end of winter 2016 (i.e. 93% “fibre” coverage, with 87% within reach of “superfast” 24Mbps+ speeds). So far 61,453 premises have been completed, although local “fibre” coverage stands at about 90% (80% for 24Mbps+ coverage), with the project’s March 2017 newsletter confirming that Phase 1 has completed (here).

On top of that a smaller £5.6m extension contract (Phase 2a) was signed with BT in June 2015 (£4.7m from BDUK and £900,000 from BT), which aims to add another 4,000 premises to the total by winter 2017 and should help to push “fibre broadband” coverage up a little bit. Take note that this excludes any work conducted under the separate Superfast Telford contract.

Since last year the local authority has also been working on a Phase 2b contract (here), which adopts the 30Mbps+ definition for “superfast broadband” and set aside £11.7 million of public funding from Broadband Delivery UK programme and Marches Local Enterprise Partnership. NOTE: This excludes the £2.2m from Phase 1 that will be returned by BT due to high take-up (clawback), which is said to have been “ring-fenced” for future broadband investment.

Back in April 2017 we heard that the Phase 2b contract had finally been awarded, which we were told would benefit an additional 16,000+ premises (i.e. 13,259 premises in the east of the county and 2,756 in the west). Unfortunately the council has since adopted a wall of silence and until today we didn’t know who had actually won.

The good news is that Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) provider Airband has won the contract, which will aim to reach “over 14,000 homes and businesses in the Shropshire Council area over the next three years” (i.e. by mid-2020).

Nic Laurens, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Broadband, said:

“I am delighted that we have secured a technology partner that can deliver superfast broadband to some of the most rural parts of the county. When this contract is completed, we expect 98% of premises in the council area to have access to superfast broadband. This means that even more people living, working and visiting Shropshire will be able to benefit from access to faster Internet connection speeds, enhancing their quality of life.

The Connecting Shropshire programme runs until 2020 and will continue to work towards providing superfast broadband to all premises without access to it, and we remain confident in being able to achieve this aspiration.”

Redmond Peel, Managing Director of Airband, added:

“We are delighted to have won the contract to deploy our fixed wireless network in Shropshire. Knowing how essential high-speed broadband is, we are looking forward to working with local residents and businesses to provide fast and reliable Internet connections.

Our experience of building masts to deploy wireless broadband services in the Midlands, Wales, Dartmoor and Exmoor has given us extensive insight into dealing with the geographical challenges that we will come across in Shropshire. Our solution uses state-of-the-art radio technology, ensuring high-speed connections where fibre broadband is not available.

Using wireless overcomes many of the speed and reliability issues that are experienced with long copper cable lengths, meaning that many who have long suffered from poor broadband due to their locality will soon be able to access speeds comparable to those of their urban counterparts.”

Regular readers will no doubt note that Airband also holds a similar state aid supported contract for the joint Devon and Somerset project (here), although hopefully their roll-out in Shropshire won’t suffer from the same delays as their deployment in the Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks. Clearly the council, which took a fair bit of time to do some extra checking on Airband before making today’s announcement, felt as if they were able to do the job.

In terms of funding, it’s noted that today’s contract has a value of £11.2m, which is less than the allocated £11.7m of public funding. Sadly the announcement makes no mention of what will happen to the missing £500,000 or whether any private investment was contributed (we are checking to find out more info. on coverage and funding).

UPDATE 11th July 2017

According to Airband, once the contract has completed it is expected that 98% of premises in the Council area will have access to superfast broadband. The ISP also informed ISPreview.co.uk of the exact funding split, which is as follows:

Airband – £1.4m
Shropshire Council – £2.24m
BDUK – £5.29m
Marches LEP – £2.27m