Connect Fibre expands NE Staffordshire Project Gigabit UK broadband build
The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) unit has agreed a contract modification for alternative network ISP Connect Fibre’s (Fibre Assets) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for North East Staffordshire (Lot 19.01) in England, which means it will now reach an additional 739 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas (total of 6,702).
The contract, which was first announced back in November 2023 (here), originally aimed to cover “up to” 6,000 premises and was valued at £16.5m (public subsidy). But after the modification the contract is now valued at £17,588,399 and will go a bit further. “As a result of the scope change, the contract value has increased by £1,028,399 from £16,560,000 to £17,588,399. The change includes 984 additions and 245 removals, resulting in a net increase of 739 premises,” said the modification notice.
According to the latest data from BDUK for September 2026 (here), Connect Fibre has already completed the build to 2,950 of the contracted premises and is continuing to deploy at a gradual but steady pace. This helps to show that such contracts are not static and their scope, as well as committed levels of public funding, can change over time for a number of different reasons.
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For example, commercial operators may expand or reduce their roll-out plans in the same region(s), which can reduce or grow the scope for public investment within those same areas. The contracted operator could also find the deployment to be more expensive, or possibly even cheaper, than previously envisaged.
Such adjustments may occur due to changes in build costs and interest rates / inflation, as well as any unexpected obstacles to street works or greater efficiencies of build than planned or expected. Suffice to say, there can be various reasons why the contracted scope of related builds and the level of allocated public funding may change over time.
The catch is that there may be further changes in the future, which could go in a different direction. So, it’s not always easy to tell what the final picture will be until you actually reach the end of each contracted build.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Is there anywhere to see the new addresses included?
Their checker still says “We’re not in your area yet, register for updates when we are.” for me so I’m doubtful.
It’s maddening to see my neighbours included in the roll out and then the council says there’s 10 houses not included, and tell me I should probably best look into Starlink… if I’m not happy with fttc.