Elevate Win Contract to Build Hyperfast Broadband Network in St Helens

Network operator Elevate (formerly Telcom and Luminet) has today announced that they’ve secured a new contract to build a “hyperfast” full fibre internet network in the large Merseyside (england) town of St Helens, which is home to a population of around 120,000.

The new network, which is said to be supported by funding from the previous Government’s £3.6bn Town Fund Programme (details), will be built on behalf of the St Helens Borough Council and its Digital Infrastructure Programme. “The network will significantly increase internet speeds and reliability for residents and businesses across the Town Centre,” said Elevate’s announcement.

The Council were supported in the development of the Project by Digital Infrastructure experts CJ Founds Associates, who helped them to develop the Commercial Case and Contracting Strategy. The contract, which saw Elevate make a “full stack offer” with its own engineers involved (i.e. the entire project will be managed through and accountable to the operator), was awarded after a “competitive tender process“.

The deployment will also adopt a “Dig Once” strategy, which typically reflects the wide reuse of existing cable ducts, street furniture and other infrastructure to run new fibre (i.e. reducing the need for new street works).

Chris Baldock, Chairman at Elevate, said:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be working with St Helens Borough Council to bring the people and businesses of the town the connectivity they deserve.”

Access to fast, affordable, reliable internet is essential to growing the local economy, attracting investment in the region, helping local businesses grow and making it easier for the people of St Helens to work remotely for national or international companies. We have extensive experience delivering full fibre infrastructure across the UK’s major cities, and we’re looking forward to bringing this experience to bear for St Helens.

As part of the contract, Elevate® will also work with Tute Education, an online education partner for local authorities, schools, and non-mainstream settings. Elevate® will give Tute a percentage of the investment directly to further drive social value by supporting schools, students, parents, and carers across St Helens, making quality education more accessible. Tute is working to build an education system that enables any child, anywhere, to achieve their potential.”

Councillor Anthony Burns, Leader of St Helens Borough Council, said:

“This Town Deal project is a key part of our transformational work to develop St Helens town centre and will prove a real boost to businesses, residents and visitors, enabling better support for things like future 5G connectivity in the borough.

This scheme will also provide digital infrastructure pulling together the other Town Deal project sites across St Helens town centre, making us one of the most digitally connected towns in the region.”

Sadly, the announcement makes no mention of how long the new network will take to complete, how big it will be or how much public investment is actually involved. But we do recall that St Helens secured £25m from the Towns Fund, although only a slice of that will be going toward digital infrastructure.

Projects like this tend to focus on building a full fibre network to connect local public sector sites, rather than individual homes and businesses, although the latter may often follow via additional private investment.

We should point out that the central part of the town is already partly covered by gigabit-capable broadband from Openreach and Virgin Media, with outer areas also being reached by various alternative networks.