Leeds City Council UK Sign £20.3m BT Full Fibre Rollout Deal

The Leeds City Council in Yorkshire has today signed a new £20.3m partnership with BT (Openreach), which will see the latter build a new local “full fibre” network to connect hundreds of schools, NHS and other public sector sites across the city. A new fund will also be setup to support community broadband initiatives.

We had originally expected that Cityfibre might pick-up the related Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) contract for this, not least since they already have a 117km long Dark Fibre network in part of the city and are currently investing £120m to roll-out a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to local homes and businesses (due to complete by 2025).

On the other hand Openreach (BT) also has a significant FTTP roll-out in Leeds and Virgin Media have similarly spent the past few years extending their own hybrid fibre coax and full fibre network in the area. In fact we recall that the the council already spends around £1.2m per annum on Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity under the current PSN contract with VirginMedia Business, but that only delivers sub-Gigabit speeds.

The local council is understood to have engaged with all three operators (and possibly some others) but in the end they awarded it to BT, which now aims to “make Leeds the largest gigabit and ‘5G capable’ city outside of London.” All of this will be done “without increasing what the council currently spends on network services.”

As a result of this deal the new gigabit speed full fibre network will work to reach every school in the district (around 285 sites), as well as extending the technology to 293 council-owned buildings and 156 NHS buildings. Local council housing across the city is also expected to be connected by the new network.

Tom Riordan CBE, CEO of Leeds City Council, said:

“We are committed to combating the digital divide experienced across the city, and recognise the importance of getting the right technology and infrastructure in achieving this. We are therefore pleased to announce our collaboration with BT today, with plans of a wide-reaching, future-proofed 5G eco-system to improve digital connectivity.

By helping to accelerate the wider roll out of full fibre networks across the city, we will be encouraging major organisations and businesses to continue to see Leeds as an extremely attractive location for inward investment.”

Sarah Walker, BT Enterprise Director (North of England), said:

“Our world-class full fibre network will establish Leeds as one of the UK’s digital leaders, by bringing ultrafast broadband speeds to people and businesses across the city as well as underpinning the widespread roll out of 5G mobile services.

We are pleased to be providing further support to local residents and businesses through a series of initiatives aimed at equipping those people most in need with the essential digital skills needed to get fit for the future.

Digital technology is transforming every element of the way we live. In a world where everyday life and work increasingly depend on technology, digital skills can be the difference between getting ahead or being left behind.”

The Leeds Full Fibre Programme will apparently use these new sites to help “accelerate the wider roll-out of faster, more reliable broadband to nearby residential and commercial properties” (obviously that will form part of a separate commercial investment).

On top of that, from 2023, the 5G mobile infrastructure that BT (EE) plans to deliver will support the roll-out of 5G mobile coverage to 70% of Leeds and approximately 81% of the city’s council houses. The council also intends to explore new 5G products and services, which can be rolled out across the city to take advantage of the improved connectivity.

Finally, BT said they will create a “flexible fund, co-governed by the council, to support community initiatives across the city” and will also “support residents by exploring low-cost connectivity options for households most in need, with a focus on council housing.”