The Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA / CBN), which aims to promote and support the development of next generation local (rural) internet access projects, has heavily criticised the UK governments new tender for a national broadband framework after it appeared to shun smaller ISPs and redefine "super-fast" broadband as anything from 15Mbps to 50mbps+.

The tender, which first surfaced on Wednesday 29th June 2011 (full details), is designed to help the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office achieve its targets. At present this includes making sure that 90% of "people in each local authority area" have access a superfast broadband (25Mbps+) service by 2015 (the last 10% will have to make do with a minimum download speed of 2Mbps).


The government has been quick to point out that BDUK's tender is just a "draft" and that its reference to sub-25Mbps speeds are only a "guideline". Crucially the government claims that its original 25Mbps+ goal will not be affected.

Sadly this does not address the problem of smaller players (ISPs), which look increasingly likely to be excluded. The Director of Fibrestream UK, Guy Jarvis, told ISPreview.co.uk today, "My view throughout has been and remains that BDUK's very existence threatens innovation and delay unless expertly delivered and that clearly hasn't shown any progress in over a year already."

The situation is especially tedious because many of the smallest operators are also those with the most experience in bringing true fibre optic broadband services to remote locations, often via only the smallest amounts of money. They can often go where the big boys cannot.

UPDATE 2nd July 2011

ComputerWeekly reports that the tender will only accept ISPs which, "confirm that their annual turnover or revenue exceeds the threshold of £20m average annual turnover or revenue over the two most recent financial years ... inability to confirm this level of revenue will result in the PQQ being disqualified."

That would obviously exclude not just small but also some medium sized providers; ISP profit margins are notoriously low. As with the 15Mbps situation above, the government claims that its £20m threshold has not yet been fixed and is merely desired to ensure that an ISP has the capacity to meet the scale of related projects.

In fairness we can understand the government's position, although it may not be entirely consistent with their claim to be focusing on local communities as such efforts might require niche operators to resolve.