Key broadband delivery targets for county's Fastershire scheme may not be met

Herefordshire Council - in agreement with Fastershire partner Gloucestershire County Council – has approved an approach to the latest stage of the scheme.

But BT has advised that it is “unlikely” to meet targets as set out on the delivery contract.

A related report cites several factors as to why, including the “physical challenges” of delivery to rural areas.

The latest stage ( Stage 3) of Fastershire is a potential extension to the contract with BT to support fibre enablement of cabinets still to be converted.

At face value this is straightforward for BT as “fibre to cabinet” is their standard technology.

Recommendations now signed off by the council effectively ask BT to provide information to help the project identify relevant cabinets serving 80 or more premises at 30Mbps and above.

 BT has within six weeks to inform a decision on contract extension.

Options determined for open procurement for stage 3 will be decided on by the council’s Director for Economies, Communities and Corporate Geoff Hughes and  cabinet member for economies and corporate services councillor Graham Powell.

 The recommendations also mean a “milestone” September completion date for central  Herefordshire will be reviewed in late August.

BT wanted the date extended to December.

Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) ) has ring-fenced funding for the next stage of the  county’s broadband delivery programme for Herefordshire – the implementation of which is outlined in the Fastershire Broadband Strategy 2014-18.

To meet the ambitions of the strategy, additional deployment needs to take place beyond extending the current contract.

The recommendations, as agreed, are based on exploring options for open procurement to test the market, understand emerging technologies  and assess value for money.

While the delivery of fibre broadband is recognised as a priority for the county, progressing the project “at any cost” is seen as jeopardising the ambitions of the authority and BDUK in ensuring maximum rural reach.

Where consideration needs to be given to value for money, coverage and cost information on cabinets is essential.

For central Herefordshire (area 11 of the project) BT requested an extension of  completion date to December 2015.

Instead, the project agreed an extension to September with scope for a further review.

BACKGROUND – Bringing superfast broadband to Herefordshire

Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council are in an agreement to jointly contract fibre broadband delivery for the non-commercial deployment areas of the two counties – known as Fastershire.

Herefordshire is the lead partner.

In December 2012, Herefordshire Council’s cabinet agreed to enter into a contract with BT for the delivery of broadband in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

By the end of the procurement process, BT was the sole remaining bidder.

The contract is worth £35.42m.

Fastershire was one of a small number of pilot projects and, as such, has its own bespoke contract.

Based on a BT model, between 85-90 per cent of premises in Herefordshire should have access to fibre broadband by the end of 2016.

This figure is made up of BT’s own commercial deployment and the Fastershire intervention area created through an open market review  in 2011 to establish areas not planned  for commercial investment  and so eligible for public subsidy.

This intervention area needed to be agreed by the EU to qualify for State Aid.

BT’s Best and Final Offer, on which the contract was based, outlines fibre broadband reach to 77.8 per cent of premises.

in the intervention area for Herefordshire, providing for download speeds of 30Mbps and above.

This represents 35,424 out of  45,532 premises within the area.

In addition, every premise in the intervention area is intended to have, as a minimum, access to the Government’s Universal Service Commitment of  around 2Mbps.

This stage of the deployment is due to finish in December 2016.

The emphasis of the programme has always been on rural reach, with more populated areas better placed to benefit from commercial delivery.

Fourteen “milestone” areas were created across the two counties – seven in each - with targets and timescales applied to each as set by BT.

If BT does not achieve  coverage targets within each milestone by the target date it is liable to contractual default.

So far, some 49,000 premises have been enabled with fibre broadband across the commercial and intervention areas since December 2012, compared with around 85,000 across the county.

On average, take up of the faster broadband service across the county was 20.67 per cent - as at the end of April 2015.

But BT has said that it is unlikely to meet its  targets - as set out in the contract - due to multiple factors such as the physical challenges of delivery in rural areas, more difficult than anticipated fibre delivery to premises and the project rejecting ineligible premises.

The council will reject any premises that does not contribute toward the baseline on which the contract was set.

So BT has submitted change requests to allow more time to complete the delivery in the affected milestone areas.

By agreeing to this request BT will avoid contractual default.

FASTERSHIRE – The Stages

Stage 1 - Commercial deployment delivered by BT at its own cost.

Stage 2  - The current Fastershire contract with BT due to be completed in Herefordshire by December 2016

Stage 3 - Potential extension to the BT contract.

Stage 4 - Procurement of project Lot 2 ( covering Golden Valley with an estimated value of £2 million) and Lot 3 (West Herefordshire with an estimated value of £1.5 million).

Stage 5 – based on targeted grant funding on demonstrated need for fibre deployment – essentially remaining premises likely to be the hardest, and most expensive, to reach.

Fastershire - Stage 3

 The council has approved an approach for Stage 3.

This stage aims to assess the potential to extend the existing contract with BT where it is economic to do so.

BT would be commissioned to fibre enable cabinets not covered in the current contract.

As the enabling of the cabinets is part of  BT’s core activity this should be straightforward to build into the current programme.

Stage 3 does not need a separate procurement because it falls within the existing value of the contract.

Also, if contracted before the end of  this month, this extension would be covered by existing State Aid cover via BDUK – with the potential for BDUK State Aid cover to be extended for a year.

If not, the project will have to apply for its own State Aid cover .

To prepare for the potential extension of the contract, a second Open Market Review (OMR) was carried out over November last year to refine the list of BT cabinets which it is believed will not be fibre enabled through either commercial initiative or the current contract with BT.

Some postcodes that were deemed to be commercial in 2011 are now eligible because they have since dropped out of the BT commercial programme.

To some extent, then, Stage 3 may target funding at areas which were already assumed to be covered and so providing further subsidy  may not lead to an incremental rise.

In accordance with OMR cabinets that are planned to be enabled through commercial programme - via BT or Virgin - have been removed from the intervention area for next stage of deployment.

The reasoning behind this is that public subsidy does not cover cabinets due for commercial deployment or “unduly impact” on fibre providers.

Value for money value is a key component of  Stage 3 to counter cost next to return.

This relates to the cost of enabling a cabinet divided by the number of premises that can be reached by 30Mbps and above.

The lower the number of premises reached by a cabinet the higher the cost per premise.

BT has been asked to provide information on service provision by cabinet to assist the contract decision process.