Progress on GBP70m Extending High Speed Broadband in Wales Project

The Welsh Government (WG) has moved into the final market engagement phase of their proposed £70m (state aid) “Extending High Speed Broadband Reach in Wales” (EHSBRW) project, which aims to help upgrade broadband for some or all of the remaining 84,000 premises (i.e. those that can’t yet get “superfast” speeds of 30Mbps+).

Regular ISPreview readers will know that the WG first began to explore the viability of such a project in May 2023 via a Prior Information Notice (here). The project is intended to complement that UK Government’s wider £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which aims to reach “nationwide” (c.99%) coverage of gigabit-capable broadband by 2030 (currently at around 87%). But it’s acknowledged that the latter will still not be enough to completely cater for all of the hardest-to-reach remote rural locations (i.e. those that are too expensive for even Project Gigabit).

The good news today is that the WG appears to be moving forward with the EHSBRW project by taking it out of the gestation stage and publishing a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice (PMEN). This notifies suppliers of their intention to proceed with a procurement for the Project, and identify likely contract terms for the Framework and call-off contracts that may be awarded under the Framework.

The final number of premises that are anticipated to be in scope for the Framework will be provided as part of the associated tender documents, but this will be subject to refinement/update during the duration of the Framework. Suffice to say that we don’t yet know precisely how many premises the final tender may seek to tackle, but we suspect it will be a lot less than the headline 84,000 premises (this figure is also now out of date).

WG Market Engagement Notice

The Welsh Government expects the Framework will have two LOTS. The first lot will be for projects that require the installation of broadband network infrastructure to 1,000 premises and over. The second lot will be for projects that require the installation of broadband network infrastructure to under 1,000 premises. The second lot will be suitable for SME’s and Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs).

The Authority expects the first Framework will commence in summer 2025 with the first call-off contract under the Framework being awarded in autumn 2025.

Please note that the estimated total value set out in this notice is in respect of all call-off contracts that may be awarded under the Framework. At this stage, it is an estimate only and is in no way guaranteed or final. The associated tender documents for this opportunity will contain more specific information.

The dates and total duration for the Framework and any call-off contracts referred to in this notice are also estimates and for illustrative purposes only. The associated tender documents for this opportunity will confirm the relevant anticipated dates for the Framework.

The WG is now inviting potential suppliers (Openreach, Ogi, Netomnia, Virgin Media/ nexfibre etc.) to formally express an interest in their related market engagement exercise, which is due to conclude on 5th May 2025. The formal tender notice will then aim to be published by 28th May 2025 and the awarded contract(s) would run for 8 years, potentially from 1st August 2025 to 31st July 2033 (estimated).

The project is only now able to proceed properly because the UK’s primary Project Gigabit programme has now almost completed its related contract awards for Wales (these have largely gone to Openreach via Type-C contracts to expand FTTP broadband into rural areas), which will give the WG a better idea of which premises may end up being left out and needing extra help.

In addition, the WG plan to complement this by reopening their Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant / voucher scheme (here). We’re currently awaiting the details of their revised approach for that, which is due imminently.