South Yorkshire Broadband Rollout Hit by Main BT Subcontractor Collapse

The state aid fuelled Superfast South Yorkshire project, which is working with Openreach (BT) to deploy “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) to 97.9% of premises by the end of 2017 (Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield), has been hit by the collapse of a “main subcontractor” and “national planning issues.”

At the time of writing the details are a little unclear and our request for more information from the project team has not been answered, although they have confirmed that over the last few months a number of areas were left “partially completed” due to the “unfortunate collapse” of one of Openreach’s (BT) “main subcontractors,” which is now going through administration.

On top of that the project team claims that Openreach has also been suffering from a number of unspecified “national planning issues,” which could be a reference to any number of different things and unfortunately we weren’t able to extract any additional clarity. Openreach offered the following comment.

A Spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We acknowledge the challenges faced over the last few months in the South Yorkshire area but we have a plan in place and we’re working closely with our contractors to make sure everything possible is done to keep the roll-out on track.”

The good news is that the SFSY project team has still managed to extend their “fibre coverage” into places like Wath, Shafton, Treeton, Thurnscoe, Edlington, Tickhill and Ecclesfield, to name but a few, and they claim that local “contractors are working flat out to overcome the challenges.” Two additional business parks in Sheffield have also gained access to Openreach’s ultrafast FTTP network (Holbrook Industrial Estate and Europa Court / Europa View).

At this stage it’s unclear whether the recent issues will delay the completion of the project, which hopes to reach an additional 95,664 premises (53,263 had been completed by June 2017).

UPDATE 4:56pm

The SFSY team has added that they “fully support the plan presented by Openreach to help keep the roll-out on track and are excited to be growing the ‘full fibre’ FTTP footprint across the region.”