Scotland Publish Tender for Universal R100 Superfast Broadband Rollout

As expected the Scottish Government has published the OJEU procurement document for their £600 million R100 programme, which aspires to extend superfast broadband (30Mbps+) networks to cover 100% of premises in Scotland (UK) by the end of 2021 (or March 2022 as a financial year).

At present around 92-93% of premises can already access a 30Mbps+ capable network and the current target aims to see this hit 95% by the end of March 2018. This is supported by the existing £428m Digital Scotland (DSSB) project with BT (Openreach), which is busy rolling out a mix of their ‘up to’ 80Mbps FTTC and 330Mbps FTTP technologies (not to mention separate commercial deployments from Virgin Media etc.).

Naturally some parts of the country are making better progress than others, with coverage in the rural Highland and Islands region only being expected to reach 86% by the end of 2017. However last week the Scottish Government confirmed that they intended to invest an impressive £600m on tackling the final 5% (here) and today the related procurement exercise has finally begun.

As expected the procurement has been divided up into three regional lots (Lot 1 – the North lot, Lot 2 – the Central lot and Lot 3 – the South lot) and it reveals that there are around 178,948 premises eligible for intervention (“white premises“), which are in scope across the contact(s). The total contract length is 120 months (10 years), although this covers on-going management as well as the initial build phase.

The aim now is to find “suppliers who will connect as many premises as possible for the available subsidy” (i.e. the 100% target is not yet set in stone until the supplier(s) have had their say).

Lot 1 – the North lot

The North Area is broadly the Highlands and Islands, Angus, Aberdeen and Dundee (more particularly described and shown coloured green on the plan forming Annex 1 of the Initial Descriptive Document) and comprises approximately 99,288 White Premises. Estimated value excluding VAT: £384m.

Lot 2 – the Central lot

The Central Area is broadly central Scotland and Fife (more particularly described and shown coloured amber on the plan forming Annex 1 of the Initial Descriptive Document) and comprises approximately 53,570 White Premises. Estimated value excluding VAT: £83m.

Lot 3 – the South lot

he South Area is broadly the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway (more particularly described and shown coloured purple on the plan forming Annex 1 of the Initial Descriptive Document) and comprises approximately 26,090 White Premises. Estimated value excluding VAT: £133m.

One interesting, albeit unsurprising, caveat is that on Lot 1 any bidders, consortium members or reliance entities will be required to have a minimum “average” yearly turnover of £3.2 million for the last 3 years (this drops to £1.5m for Lot 2 and £0.8m for Lot 3), as well as all the usual insurance protections etc. Otherwise the document (view it here) appears to be of a fairly standard setup. Credits to Tim for the notice.

UPDATE 3:39pm

The Scottish Government has now put out an announcement to accompany today’s news.

Fergus Ewing, Scottish Connectivity Secretary, said:

“We have taken the decision not to focus on urban city centre premises in this first phase, but to target investment where it is needed most – in rural and remote Scotland. We are working with the private sector to encourage their own investment in unconnected urban areas, rather than rely on public funds.

Reaching 100% will not be easy to achieve, however achieve it we must. Fast and reliable digital connectivity is a fundamental expectation of all communities, regardless of location.

To deliver our ambition, this government is investing £600 million through the Reaching 100% programme – more than any government in the UK has ever invested in broadband.

I am confident that this procurement approach, funded by our record investment, will put delivery of our unique 100% commitment within touching distance. We are aiming to provide a robust fibre backbone to underpin delivery of superfast broadband for all by the end of 2021.”