Connect Fibre Win Derbyshire UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract

The UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has today announced that they’ve awarded the regional £33m (state aid) rollout contract for Derbyshire (LOT 3) in England to ISP Connect Fibre, which will aim to extend their full fibre network to an additional 17,000+ premises in hard to reach rural areas.

The project aims to extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025, before hopefully achieving “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 (here). Commercial investment is expected to deliver more than 80% of this, which leaves the government’s scheme to focus on tackling the final 20% (mostly rural and some sub-urban areas), where the private sector alone often fails. The project is technology neutral, but Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks are strongly favoured.

The project uses a number of different methods to tackle this challenge (e.g. vouches and investment in dark fibre builds), but the largest part of the scheme involves a gap-funded subsidy approach – the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS). This is where smaller local or larger regional contracts are awarded to network operators and ISPs who can help to build their gigabit-capable infrastructure across the final 20%.

The executive Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, which manages the programme, has already awarded a string of initial rollout contracts to various operators – across various parts of the UK (see bottom of article for a summary). This year alone they’ve already awarded contracts for Shropshire, Cambridgeshire, New Forest, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampshire, North East Staffordshire and Oxfordshire – totalling over £530m invested to benefit over 330,000 properties.

The announcement comes as BDUK are due to issue their latest progress update today, showing that the total number of homes and businesses that already have access to fast and reliable gigabit broadband as a result of UK Government investment now stands at 929,700.

The Derbyshire Project

The Derbyshire (Lot 3) rollout is expected to reach over 17,000 premises across rural villages and hamlets such as Eckington, Hulland Ward, Shirley and many other areas. Detailed planning on this is already said to be underway, with spades expected to be in the ground by the middle of 2024, and the first premises being connected in 2025.

Local people will further benefit from Connect Fibre’s commitment to develop community initiatives in Derbyshire, including free gigabit connections for community learning and library sites, as well as offering support for local businesses to ensure they’re maximising the transformative potential of high-speed connectivity.

This news comes just weeks after Connect Fibre was also awarded (here) the £16.5m Project Gigabit contract to connect up to 6,000 rural homes and businesses in North East Staffordshire (Lot 19.01).

Sir John Whittingdale, Minister for Digital Infrastructure, said:

“Thousands of homes and businesses in rural Derbyshire, from Eckington to Hulland Ward are set to experience lightning-fast broadband – fit for the future. Through our flagship Project Gigabit programme, we’re investing billions to make sure hard-to-reach communities like these get access to the transformative gigabit connectivity they deserve.”

Connect Fibre CEO, Stefan Stanislawski, said:

“Connect Fibre is thrilled to be awarded the Project Gigabit contract to bring full fibre broadband to hard-to-reach parts of Derbyshire. We’re big believers in the transformative power of reliable broadband and are honoured to be delivering to homes and businesses that need it most.

Our commitment to connecting rural communities doesn’t stop at providing broadband, but extends into empowering homes and businesses with everything they need to thrive in today’s digital world. We are excited to get started on this journey and to see the life-changing impact it will have on Derbyshire residents.”

Connect Fibre is a smaller player that, with support from the Foresight Group (here), aspires to cover 100,000 premises across the East of England. Suffice to say that this is yet another particularly big contract win for them, but hopefully they’ll be able to scale up and deliver on it. Further details should follow once the final rollout plan has been decided next year.

Project Gigabit GIS Contract Awards History
➤ Wessex Internet for North Dorset (Lot 14.01) in August 2022 (here)
➤ GoFibre for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) in September 2022 (here)
➤ GoFibre for North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) in October 2022 (here)
➤ Fibrus for Cumbria (Lot 28) in November 2022 (here)
➤ Wildanet for Central Cornwall (Lot 32.03) and South West Cornwall (Lot 32.02) in January 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Cambridgeshire (Lot 5) in March 2023 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for the New Forest (Lot 27.01) in April 2023 (here)
➤ Freedom Fibre for North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) in May 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Norfolk (Lot 7), Suffolk (Lot 2) and Hampshire (Lot 27) in July 2023 (here)
➤ Gigaclear for South Oxfordshire (Lot 13.01) and North Oxfordshire (Lot 13.02) in Nov 2023 (here)
➤ Connect Fibre for North East Staffordshire (Lot 19.01) in Nov 2023 (here)
➤ Connect Fibre for Derbyshire (Lot 3) in Dec 2023