£70m High Speed Broadband Project in Wales Gets New Supplier After Error

The Welsh Government (WG) has revealed that an “unforeseen administrative error” meant they neglected to name one of the approved suppliers for their £70m (public subsidy) Extending High Speed Broadband (EHSB) project when the original list was announced earlier this year (here). The supplier, BB4W Ltd (Broadband 4 Wales), has now been added to the framework.

Just to recap. Earlier this year the WG confirmed that Openreach (BT), Fibrus, Wifinity and Airband had been appointed as suppliers who could bid on parts of their EHSB project. This aims to extend “high speed broadband” across a total of around 29,000 premises in poorly served areas of Wales (i.e. places that can’t yet access 30Mbps+ speeds) – such as those not due to benefit from commercial builds or Project Gigabit.

The actual detail of precisely what these contracts will deliver (broadband technology, speeds, premises passed per contract etc.) and where (i.e. towns, villages, regions) has yet to be set out. But it emerged this week that the Welsh Government neglected to name all of the approved suppliers for LOT 2 of the scheme, which is valued at £10m and intended for projects that require the installation of broadband networks to under 1,000 premises (i.e. smaller communities).

The original announcement only named Airband, Fibrus and Wifinity as approved suppliers for the smaller LOT 2 deployments (NOTE: LOT 1 is valued at £60m and intended for bigger builds), but we’ve now learnt that this incorrectly excluded BB4W due to an admin error.

Welsh Gov’s Contract Statement

The Authority is issuing this Contract Change Notice due to an unforeseen administrative error that has been identified by the Authority, which incorrectly omitted BB4W Ltd from the list of suppliers that were successfully admitted to Lot 2 (Installation of broadband network infrastructure to under 1,000 premises) of the Framework.

As such, this Contract Change Notice confirms that the Authority intends to amend the Framework to include BB4W Ltd as an admitted supplier under Lot 2 of the Framework.

For the avoidance of any doubt, the standstill period that is described in this Contract Change Notice only applies in respect of the proposed award of a Framework Contract to BB4W Ltd. The relevant standstill period has been completed, and Framework Contracts have been awarded, in respect of all other suppliers previously confirmed as having been admitted to both Lots of the Framework, as set out in the Authority’s Contract Details Notice published on 11 June 2026. With the exception of the above information relating to the admission of BB4W Ltd to Lot 2, all of the information set out in the Authority’s Contract Award Notice dated 27 March 2026 and Contract Details Notice dated 11 June 2026 remains valid.

Awkward.