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Progress Toward 100% Superfast Broadband Cover in Suffolk UK

Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 (8:37 am) - Score 1,171

The state aid supported Better Broadband for Suffolk project in England is expected to start signing some new contracts with ISPs in the latter part of June – July 2018, which could help them to achieve their ambition of 100% “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) coverage by the end of 2020.

At present around 93% of Suffolk is already covered by fixed superfast broadband networks and a big chunk of that is due to the aforementioned project, which has been working with the government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme and Openreach (BT) to extend the availability of their FTTC (plus some FTTP) based broadband networks (123,684 premises have already befitted from this).

The current deployment deal (Suffolk’s third contract) should extend superfast connectivity to “over” 98% of local premises by around mid-2020, although the county council has long held an ambition to reach 100% by the very end of 2020. Unfortunately that final 2% also happens to represent some of the “hardest to reach” areas, many of which exist on the East Suffolk coast.

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Last year the local authority moved to tackle this challenge by establishing the Suffolk Coastal Enabling Broadband Programme Board and this week the East Suffolk council released a small but useful update (here) on its progress, which states that new tenders could be agreed this summer.

Council Statement

A Viability Event was held on 26th February 2018 at East Suffolk House to present the Council’s plans to potential suppliers of broadband services and generate discussion on the feasibility of potential delivery options. Six interested providers attended and received a clear understanding of what the Council was trying to achieve and likely funding available. The event was successful with an agreed decision to proceed on the basis of a “Framework Agreement approach”.

The Framework Agreement approach would allow interested companies to qualify for a framework which would enable them to express interest in and tender for the items of work in the build phase. The build phase will involve identifying a number of current nobuild areas and asking for proposals for the provision of a broadband service to those premises. The first phase build will be followed by another phase leading to full coverage or to the extent that the limited resources will allow.

Likely timescale based on compliance with standard procurement processes should enable completion of Framework qualifying process within May and tenders for the first of the build areas awarded between the latter part of June – July 2018. Work is currently being undertaken to determine the detail and document the service specification and selection criteria to be used for the procurement process.

As the Framework will be valid for up to four years, then efforts will be made wherever possible to ensure sufficient flexibility so that it could be used to address similar broadband availability issues across wider East Suffolk area should additional funding be available.

The Enabling Broadband Programme has a budget of £250k, £200k of which has been agreed as part of the approved 2017/2018 MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy) and a further £50k from the return of a contribution made by Suffolk Coastal District Council (via SCLSP) to the Suffolk Better Broadband Programme thereby giving a total fund of £250k.

On the other hand £250,000, even when matched with private investment, won’t take them very far because it’s always disproportionately more expensive to tackle the most remote and sparse rural communities. So far Suffolk’s existing project has already contracted around £54 million of public funding (£26.94m from BDUK and £26.67m from local bodies/councils) and that’s before we factor BT’s private investment.

On the other hand there’s still a question mark over how much reinvestment of public funding might in future be returned by BT due to strong take-up of the new service (gainshare / clawback under the existing contract), which could be used to further improve local broadband coverage. Hopefully more details will surface in a few months.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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8 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo gerarda says:

    Mark

    The Better Broadband to Suffolk website has not been updated for at least 6 months and so the figure of 123,684 premises upgraded is out of date.

    I am not sure why Suffolk Coastal and Waveney District Councils seem to have decided to part company with the County Council but it does look like it will result in an even more fragmented solution for the last 2-3%.

    1. Avatar photo NGA for all says:

      Suffolk Coastal looks to be 15.5% (<30Mbps) points down over 63k premises. I hope they get access to all the underspends and clawback.

  2. Avatar photo UK Should be ashamed at their broadband infrastructure says:

    Now they claim that it’s more difficult to roll out to harder to reach areas. I can get that it takes more materials because of the distance but how it is it harder? there are less obstructions than urban areas.

    1. Avatar photo MikeW says:

      Harder to reach has always been a misnomer. It is short for more expensive to reach, or harder to justify financially. Too few people for the cost involved.

      In short, it isn’t profitable. At least not while having to adhere to a single, nationwide, pricelist.

    2. Avatar photo David Evans says:

      Please check out B4RN, we are now in East Anglia providing 1,000Mbps FTTP service to rural locations. The service is live and free to trial at Scole Community Centre in Scole and currently we are digging/connecting through Scole Parish Norfolk and the adjoining villages that have started their own B4RN projects. The servcie is symmetrical (1,000Mbps up and down) and is pure fibre alll the way from your house to Telehouse North in London where the world connects. Currently £30.00 per month inc VAT on a one month rolling contract. If you want B4RN you need to have 50% interest in your parish, raise the investment required, gain agreement from land owners, provide the volunteers to make it happen, and just build it!

  3. Avatar photo UK Should be ashamed at their broadband infrastructure says:

    @MikeW

    Sadly this is the case. It’s not profitable, for companies which receive millions if not billions in profit should surely re-invest. They will make their profit even more so from the lines they have upgraded already.

    It is saddening that the packages cost the same across the board irrespective of your residence. Lines not achieving a paltry 2mbps should be discounted rather than being charged the same price as Joe Bloggs less than 5 miles away who achieves a speed of 24Mbps.

  4. Avatar photo Jean Pope says:

    MY Broadband is coming from the Ubbeston exchange IP190EY which seems to be operating like something out of the dark ages. When-OH- When will this exchange be upgraded. My neighbours are less that 300 metres away and they have been upgraded but it seems they have a difference exchange . We know we are RURAL but WHY are BT not meeting their commitment date of the end of 2017 to UPGRADE. SEEMS IT IS NOW 2020 -GOD HELP ANYONE TRYING TO RUN A BUSINESS – SUFFOLK ENTERPRISE IS NOW JUST A JOKE- THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SUPPORT FROM THE COUNCIL OR THE ENTERPRISE IN SORTING OUT THESE ISSUES. OF COURSE THIS IS WELCOME TO SUFFOLK I DO NOT THINK!!!

    1. Avatar photo David Evans says:

      Hi Jean, I too got fed up waiting for BT, please go to Scole community centre where you can log on for free via wifi to trial B4RN. Please check out B4RN, we are now in East Anglia providing 1,000Mbps FTTP service to rural locations. The service is live and free to trial at Scole Community Centre in Scole and currently we are digging/connecting through Scole Parish Norfolk and the adjoining villages that have started their own B4RN projects. The servcie is symmetrical (1,000Mbps up and down) and is pure fibre alll the way from your house to Telehouse North in London where the world connects. Currently £30.00 per month inc VAT on a one month rolling contract. If you want B4RN you need to have 50% interest in your parish, raise the investment required, gain agreement from land owners, provide the volunteers to make it happen, and just build it!

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