Update on Greater Manchester’s £32m Gigabit Full Fibre Project

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has given its approval to the selection of a preferred bidder (due to be named within the next few weeks) to deliver on their Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) project, which originally aimed to deploy a 450km long Gigabit speed fibre network to serve 1,300 public sector sites.

The new wholesale Dark Fibre network, which is supported by £23.7m from the UK Government’s Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) fund, eventually hopes to encourage further private sector investment of up to £250m (e.g. broadband ISPs could use it to help extend their own fibre FTTP networks). Some of the funding (c.£2.5m) would also help to support the existing Cooperative Network Infrastructure (CNI) scheme in Tameside, which is already being harnessed by some ISPs (e.g. Virgin Media).

The procurement process for all this began in spring last year (here) and the GMCA has now chosen a preferred supplier to deliver the new network (they’ll be named soon but Cityfibre, Virgin Media and others are a fair bet). However there have been a few changes since the tender went out, which were covered in this week’s meeting document.

One key point concerns the fact that Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband coverage in Salford has risen significantly (from 10% to 45%) since the procurement process began – largely due to Openreach’s (BT) Fibre First build – and that resulted in some overbuild concerns. As a result it was agreed that Salford City Council would be removed from the Anchor Tenancy procurement and a smaller number of eligible sites will now be delivered through the Public Sector Buildings Upgrade (PSBU) model.

Other key points from the tender process

➛ Public sector partners will get 30 years connectivity instead of 20 years for the same cost – 50% longer Indefeasible Rights of Use (IRU) is being offered – This means that whilst partners investment was calculated based on a proportion of connectivity spend over 20 years – LAs, GMCA/F&RS and GMCA/TfGM will benefit from 30 years access to full fibre.

➛ In excess of 200 additional public sector sites will be connected at no additional cost to local authority partners and GMCA/FRS and TfGM. The majority of local authorities will benefit from having at least 40% more sites connected.

➛ Partner contributions will not exceed the capped upfront capital contributions agreed in March 2019.

➛ Will deliver up to 2,717Km of new full fibre across GM with 97% provided via existing ducting which will minimise disruption – which will be supported by the adoption and implementation of the GM Prospectus aimed at simplifying administrative processes and providing a consistent public sector approach to the roll out of full fibre broadband in GM. Whilst work to recondition ducting will be needed, the total length of new dig is estimated at only 9km and is largely in short segments to connect individual sites.

➛ Residential and business premises passed will be up to 45% of GM rather than the 25% originally forecast, significantly increasing the potential reach for wider roll out, and offering future opportunities for smart city development.

➛ Better service options: Local public sector services will be free to procure services from any provider across the open access network.

➛ Social value: This includes planned apprentice appointments, working to increase digital skills in Greater Manchester and reducing homelessness.

The grant offer from DCMS (Government) requires Greater Manchester to defray all LFFN funding by the end of March 2021, which doesn’t allow much time for building. As such the preferred bidder is expected to sign their contract in early February “at the latest” and then “works will commence on site from Spring 2020.”