Shropshire UK Hails Completion of Superfast Broadband Rollout

The Shropshire Council in England has confirmed the completion of their final contract under the £36m (state aid) “Superfast Broadband” (30Mbps+) rollout programme, which over the last 10 years has signed deals with various operators (e.g. Openreach, Airband) and extended coverage from 24% to 98.5% of premises.

Just to clarify, much of that increase in “superfast” coverage – between 24% and 98.5% – will have actually come from commercial network expansions, while the state aid supported Connecting Shropshire project helped to add another c. 70,000 premises to the overall coverage – focusing on areas that were deemed to suffer from market failure (i.e. locations that either weren’t expect to be upgraded via commercial builds or wouldn’t otherwise get it for many years).

Comparison of rural population and superfast broadband cover in selected geographies
(Thinkbroadband data)

The final contract of the superfast rollout programme was awarded to and delivered by Airband. This contract officially closed in March 2023, bringing an end to the superfast programme managed by Shropshire Council. But admittedly there were some delays in the programme, although such issues are shared by many of the other programmes across the UK.

Robert Macey, Shropshire Council, said:

“I am delighted to have taken over responsibility for a successful programme, and I know from personal experience how transformational access to a decent broadband connection can be. It’s right and proper that we continue to support a broadband strategy that retains a focus on upgrading those premises that are on the slowest speeds.

Whilst the council’s direct involvement in the delivery of broadband infrastructure has ended, we welcome the opportunity to work alongside the Government and with broadband infrastructure suppliers to continue the success achieved locally.”

The attention will now switch to Shropshire’s share of the new £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which is being run by the UK government and not the council. According to last year’s public review of gigabit-capable broadband coverage in the county, there are 63,828 premises (out of 253,818 total) where the market does not intend to build 1Gbps speed broadband networks (37.2% of Shropshire’s premises can access gigabit speeds today).

The government’s related Building Digital UK agency has already launched two initial procurements in Shropshire to help tackle this.

Lot 25.01 Mid West Shropshire

• 7,359 premises (all in the Shropshire Council area)
• Subsidy available £10,805,000

Lot 25.02 North Shropshire

• 12,277 premises (10,752 in Shropshire Council area)
• Subsidy available £24,042,000

The contract for the North Shropshire build was only just awarded to network builder Freedom Fibre last week (here), while the contract for Mid West Shropshire is due to be awarded imminently. But combined, this still accounts for less than half of the predicted coverage gap, and thus more intervention is likely to be needed as part of future procurements under Project Gigabit.

However, disadvantaged communities also have the option to seek funding via the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), which in Shropshire can offer up to £7,000 per premises to help properties get such a connection installed. Vouchers can be combined in a community to help fund the new deployment.