{"id":31190,"date":"2022-05-30T08:30:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T07:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=31190"},"modified":"2022-05-31T06:56:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T05:56:02","slug":"gov-issue-spring-2022-update-on-uk-project-gigabit-broadband-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/05\/gov-issue-spring-2022-update-on-uk-project-gigabit-broadband-rollout.html","title":{"rendered":"Gov Issue Spring 2022 Update on UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government’s Building Digital UK<\/a> team has today published a Spring 2022 progress update for their \u00a35bn Project Gigabit<\/a> broadband rollout, which among other things adds new regional procurements in Norfolk and Suffolk and two local supplier procurements in Cornwall, potentially extending 1Gbps speeds to c.190,000 premises.<\/p>\n

Project Gigabit is designed to extend such download speeds to reach at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025, before hopefully nationwide coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 (here<\/a>). The funding released for this will depend upon how the industry responds. So far only \u00a31.2bn<\/strong> has been released from the budget up until 2024, but more is expected to be unlocked provided the industry shows it can deliver.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> All of this is technology neutral, so such schemes can use “full fibre” FTTP<\/a> (preferred), Hybrid Fibre Coax (DOCSIS<\/a> 3.1+) or fixed wireless (e.g. 5G<\/a>) to plug the gap.<\/div>\n
UK Gigabit-Capable Coverage by Type with Trajectory (BDUK Corporate Plan)<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"Project-Gigabit-BDUK-Coverage-Forecast-Spring-2022\"<\/div>\n

The update notes that around 68% of UK premises can already access a gigabit-capable network (c. 36% via just FTTP<\/a>) and that’s mostly thanks to Virgin Media<\/a>’s upgrade to their existing HFC lines (here<\/a>). Generally, it’s expected that commercial builds could push gigabit coverage up to around 80% by the end of 2025 (mostly urban build), but public funding will then be needed to tackle the rest due to the disproportionately high cost of deployment.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting how such figures are split. In January 2022, 70% of urban premises across the UK had access to gigabit-capable connections (up from 39% in Jan 2021), along with 30% of rural premises (up from 19%). At the same time, 66% of residential premises and 40% of businesses premises had access to gigabit capability (Ofcom’s Spring 2022 update<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The project is designed to focus on improving connectivity for those rural and semi-rural areas in the final 20% (5-6 million premises<\/strong>). This consists of several support schemes, including gigabit vouchers (\u00a3210m), funding to extend Dark Fibre<\/strong> around the public sector (\u00a3110m) and gap-funded deployments with suppliers (rest of the funding). Today’s article is largely focused upon the latter, which sees ISPs bidding – via a new Dynamic Purchasing System<\/strong> (DPS) run by BDUK – to extend their networks across rural parts of the UK (usually split via larger ‘Regional’ contracts and smaller ‘Local’ ones).<\/p>\n

What’s New in the Spring 2022 Update<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The update starts with a summary of key BDUK progress and developments, which also mentions the completion of their original \u00a3164m Local Full Fibre Networks<\/strong> (LFFN) programme, which pre-dates the recent addition of \u00a3210m (see above) under Project Gigabit to help connect public sector sites to full fibre (the addition is effectively an extension of that schemes). The new fibre built by this scheme has, in quite a few areas, also made it easier for commercial deployments to extend to reach nearby homes and businesses via FTTP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BDUK’s Key Quarterly Achievements (Spring 2022)<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u27a4 BDUK reached a milestone of over 100,000 broadband vouchers issued (7,000 were issued in the last quarter alone), worth more than \u00a3185 million, with 65,000 claimed to date to support households and businesses with the additional costs of securing gigabit-capable connections.<\/p>\n

\u27a4 The Local Full Fibre Networks programme concluded on 31st March 2022, having delivered gigabit connectivity to more than 5,000 public buildings and 500 public assets – via a total of 39 projects, including schools, hospitals and community centres, with a government investment of \u00a3164 million. That\u2019s 2,700km of fibre and 1,100km of new ducting laid, mostly in hard to reach areas, which includes upgrades to:<\/p>\n