Superfast Broadband in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire County Council has recently announced plans for investment in superfast broadband across Cambridgeshire. Alongside £6.75 million Broadband Delivery UK funding, Cambridgeshire County Council agreed at a cabinet meeting on August 15th 2011 to invest up to £20 million to enable the roll-out of superfast broadband into areas within Cambridgeshire not covered by BT superfast broadband investment plans.
Cambridgeshire Council Council expects that public sector funding will complement the planning private sector investment from BT within Cambridgeshire as part of an overall public/private investment package in digital infrastructure that could total £70 million over the next four years.
It is estimated that the planned public/private investment in superfast broadband will enable access to superfast broadband to 90% of premises across Cambridgeshire by 2015.
It is envisaged that procurement would proceed through 2012/13, with expected roll-out from 2014.
The UK Government wants Britain to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport wants all homes and businesses in the UK to have access to at least 2Mbps and superfast broadband should be available to 90% of people in each local authority area by 2015. Superfast broadband has been identified as having a minimum download speed of 25Mbps.
BT currently plans a £2.5bn investment to roll out superfast broadband infrastructure to two-thirds of UK premises by 2014. To help bridge the gap, the Government published a superfast broadband strategy document in December 2010. Following this report a £530 million fund was identified for the Spending Review Period (to 2015), which will be used to incentivise the roll out of superfast broadband into areas that the private sector would not reach under standard market conditions. This fund is being managed by a team within Department for Culture, Media and Sport known as Broadband Delivery UK.
In an email about superfast broadband in Cambridgeshire received on the 14th November 2011, Tom Hennessy, Inward Investment Officer for Cambridgeshire County Council said:
“It is important that we don’t compete unnecessarily with what the private sector will provide anyway, and we are currently gathering detailed information of the roll-out plans for telecoms companies in the area (for example BT and Virgin Media). Our intervention/investment will then be in the areas which the private sector will not cover.”
“As soon as I know more in way of timings for this activity I will be in touch. In the meantime, can I ask that you encourage your residents to respond to future communications about broadband from the County Council to ensure the true level of demand is known.”
Here are the latest timescales from Cambridgeshire County Council:
2012 Demand Stimulation and Procurement
- Feb 2012: Local Broadband Plan submitted to BDUK for approval
- Feb 2012: Suppliers Day
- Feb-Dec 2012: OJEU Competitive Dialogue
- Mar-May 2012: Business and community engagement
- Jun-Dec 2012: Stimulate broadband take up
- Sep-Dec 2012: Shortlist suppliers
2013 Implementation
- Jan 2013: Award supplier contract
- Feb 2013 onwards: Planning and preparing for infrastructure roll-out (including a major communications programme)
