Category: Projects

Broadband, Projects

Additional Funding for Superfast Broadband Announced.

The Government has announced that additional funding of £3.68m will be made available to take the coverage of superfast broadband to 95% of premises across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire. The funding is conditional on being matched. The current £15.47m CSW Broadband contract with BT will achieve superfast coverage to 91% of premises and this funding will enable the project to procure a solution to achieve  a further 4% to coverage, which is 95% overall.

In the current economic climate it is not easy to see where the required match funding will come from, but the CSW Broadband team have made applications through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership for a total of £7.85m from the EU, and we are actively seeking other sources of funding for this important project. They have always said that the current project us just a stepping stone towards the EU target of 100% coverage at 30Mbps. This funding will help to take the superfast coverage even further.

CSW Broadband will be procuring a partner to take the network to 95% superfast coverage, but are a long way from being able to say which areas will benefit. As with the first contract there will be a procurement exercise and the results of that, and the subsequent investigative works, will determine where the network will be rolled out next.

The team are still actively investigating any and all sources of funding to reach the EU 2020 targets of 100% coverage at a minimum of 30Mbps – which is higher than the current superfast speed of 24Mbps!! The Government has already said that it will launch a £10m fund on 17th March for pilot projects to test new ways of delivering high speed broadband. CSW Broadband will work with suitable local companies in developing applications to this fund and, if successful, in trialling the new technologies in our area.

Broadband, Projects

Superfast Broadband – First communities to benefit are announced

From Spring 2014, superfast fibre-based broadband will start to become available for the first time in parts of Alderminster, Fillongley, Henley-in-Arden, Kineton, Quinton, Long Marston, Snitterfield and Welford-on-Avon. In addition, fibre will also ‘go live’ in areas of Stratford-upon-Avon and Wellesbourne not already enabled by any commercial rollout.

 

CSW Broadband will connect around 40,000 additional premises in the project area to superfast broadband with download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploads of up to 20Mbps.

 

Further updates about the rollout will be made in the coming weeks via our newsletters and the CSW Broadband website: http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk.The combined commercial and CSW Broadband rollouts will result in 91 per cent of the area’s homes and businesses being able to access superfast broadband. On completion of the CSW Broadband rollout, all premises within Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire will be able to access a minimum of 2Mbps, but in practice this could be up to 23.9 Mbps (above which it is classified as superfast).

 

We recognise that this project is a stepping stone to the EU targets for 2020 of all Europeans having access to broadband above 30 Mbps (which is above the current upper threshold) and 50% connected to and using 100 Mbps, but additional funding will be required to make this happen (see below).

 

Additional funding

 

The government has announced funds of £250m to take superfast broadband coverage up to 95% (our current project will achieve 91%), but we do not as yet know when or how this money will be made available. In addition we are actively investigating any and all other funding sources, and have recently made submission through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership European Structural Investment Funds Strategy for a total of £7.85m. We aim to increase the fibre footprint as soon as more money becomes available.

 

Release of more detailed information

 

 

We have been working for some time now to offer more detailed information so that residents can have greater visibility of what is planned. One of the main problems we face is that the data we are given is detailed by postcode, but telecoms infrastructure clearly does not follow postcodes. In fact, as the surveys progress we are finding that we have some postcodes that are served by a number of cabinets, and some cabinets that serve properties in more than one postcode. When you factor in the fact that some properties may be served by exchanges or cabinets that are several miles away you can see the difficulties.

 

The reason for this state of affairs is that when the original copper telecoms systems were developed it was often the big houses that had telephones first, and these were connected back to an exchange (which would have been manned by real people!) As more properties were built, cabinets were introduced at strategic points to enable better management of the network, and over recent years as more developments have been built so more cabinets have been installed. At the most extreme end of things we have a property in Stratford that is connected to the Rugby exchange, and in many cases two neighbouring properties may be served by different cabinets, with one of them being a considerable distance away.

 

Because voice transmissions are not sensitive to distance in the way that data signals are, the distance of a property from its supporting infrastructure was of little importance. However, with the advent of broadband this has all changed as signals can degrade over as little as 750m, meaning that superfast speeds will only be achieved by those properties that are closest to the cabinet.

 

We will soon be providing the means for people to check through the website which cabinet they are connected to, and therefore if they will benefit from the current upgrade programme. We can only do this for those cabinets where we are sure of the location (thanks to your fantastic responses to our previous requests), and so will also be showing where we still require further cabinet locations

 

Questions and Answers

 

Why have you gone to these areas first?

 

The aim of the programme is to achieve the best possible broadband coverage for the project area with the resources available and to achieve best value for money. The rollout strategy is based on engineering logic taking into account many factors including local geography, demographics and planning requirements, the existing engineering infrastructure and the availability of suitable technologies to provide a service. It’s not possible with a programme of this size to plan every area at the same time so some areas will be enabled before others. We do try to work in one particular area for efficiency reasons but other than that there is no specific reason why we have chosen these locations first. You have to start somewhere!

 

So once my new cabinet is in place does that mean I can get superfast broadband?

 

Not immediately. Standing the cabinet is part of the story, it then has to be connected back to the exchange. Usually this is relatively straightforward, but sometimes there are issues such as blocked ducts. These are more common in the rural areas where the fibre runs back to the exchange are likely to be longer and where vehicles driving over grass verges can cause substantial damage to ducting.

 

Once my cabinet is connected to the exchange, what then?

 

That is entirely up to you. We are installing a wholesale network, which means that any Internet Service Provider (ISP) can offer you broadband and there are a wide range of packages available. Do check though that you are able to actually achieve the speeds that are advertised as the geographic issues mentioned above will apply in all cases.

 

To see the list of ISPs visit http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/about-broadband/alternative-providers-and-isps.

 

For the BT broadband availability checker visit: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput

 

Frequently asked general broadband questions can be found on our website at:

 

http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/the-project/frequently-asked-questions

 

Questions about the contract or rollout can be found at:

 

http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/the-project/bduk-contract-qas

Broadband, Projects

Superfast Broadband January 2014 Update

State Aid approval finally received

CSW Broadband has finally received State Aid approval for the additional £750,000 that was brought into the project during the procurement process. This means that we are able to intervene in the areas that qualify as “white” – i.e. as having no planned commercial provision of superfast broadband. The map that was posted to the website in November still stands, and will be updated as we gain greater certainty over which area will be receiving superfast broadband.

Additional funding – details still awaited

The Government has announced that an additional £250m funding will be made available to bring superfast broadband coverage in the UK up to 95% by 2017. However, no details have been released yet as to how the money will be allocated. We understand that there will be a match-funding requirement but it is unclear as to how that will be met, especially given the national state of Local Authority finances.

CSW Broadband is working with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) on the development of the Strategic Economic Plan, which will set the priorities for action over the next few years. We are also working with the LEP on the European Structural Investment Fund Strategy, which we hope will enable us to attract EU funding to help with the broadband rollout. In the meantime, 2017 is getting ever closer and the sooner we are able to get on with planning further rollout the sooner we will benefit from economies of scale as we can run that provision as part of our current project. The longer we have to wait the higher the costs will be.

Text of The Big Build video

We have an excellent video on our website which explains how the network will be built and rolled out. However, not everybody is able to see the video, so in response to requests here is the text:

The big build to bring superfast broadband to the UK is complex and it takes time for a town or telephone exchange area to be upgraded. Here’s how it works in a typical exchange area:

The broadband many of us have today travels on copper lines from the telephone exchange, usually via a Green Road side cabinet to your home or business. The first piece in the superfast broadband jigsaw is the installation of fibre to the cabinet or FTTC technology. This is where fibre optic cable is brought from the telephone exchange building to new green roadside cabinets.

From the cabinet it then travels over the existing copper line into your business or home. Download speeds of up to eighty megabits per second will be possible via this type of connection.

In some areas it will be possible to install another type of cutting-edge technology called fibre to the premises or FTTP. This is the second piece in the jigsaw.  Here fibre is brought directly from the exchange into businesses and homes, bypassing the copper network completely. This will bring even faster download speeds up to 300 megabits per second.

Next will come solutions for exchange only lines. These connect premises which are very close by or perhaps much further away directly to the Exchange Building.

Finally there will be some places where it will not be possible to install a fibre optic connection.  BT is trialling alternative technologies to bring faster broadband to these areas, such as wireless, satellite and TV white spaces. BT’s advanced copper broadband Ethernet services will also play an important role as they continue to be rolled out across the UK.

Crucially BT’s network is open to all communications providers. This provides customers with a choice of service providers, keeping competition high and prices low.

In reality each of the technologies that make up the jigsaw will become available in different areas at different times. Not all of one area will go live on the same day, and not every technology will be used in each area.

But when the jigsaw is complete the UK will have one of the best superfast broadband infrastructures in the world – which will last for decades to come.

We would strongly recommend taking a look at the video if you can as the graphics really do bring the build to life. It’s available from our home page: http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk  

Warwickshire’s  Rural Growth Network (RGN)

Warwickshire’s rural areas have good business start-up rates.  However, these businesses tend to remain small and fail to experience growth, so the Warwickshire Rural Growth Network has funded a number of partners and projects which aim to help existing rural businesses grow and is doing this by:

·       Providing specialist coaching, mentoring and networking;

·       Putting a focus on innovation and technology;

·       Providing a range of finance opportunities and specialist advice to help businesses access the right one for them; and

·       Creating a new Rural Innovation Centre at Stoneleigh Park, linked to further centres in north and south Warwickshire.

·       The RGN is also providing support for new start-ups and there are specific targets for women-led enterprise in the start-up support, business growth, small business loan and micro enterprise grants activities.

The RGN estimates that these activities will result in: 400 businesses assists, 120 new business start-ups and 500 new or safeguarded jobs by March 2015.

For more information on the activities of the RGN and the areas of Warwickshire included in the RGN area, please look at the website:  www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ruralgrowthnetwork  or call on 01926 412709

Coventry Voucher Scheme

This month Coventry City Council is launching a £2.6m scheme which is funded by BDUK under the Super Connected Cities programme. The project will offer superfast broadband connection vouchers to SME’s in the City. This is a great opportunity for businesses to claim up to £3,000 (excl. vat) towards the connection costs associated with upgrading their broadband.  This may involve a range of technologies including cabinet upgrades or fibre on demand (where available) or even wireless. It should be noted that under the terms of the funding this offer is only available to businesses located within the Coventry City Council area and that timescales are short since the project ends in March 2015. For more information visit https://www.connectionvouchers.co.uk

Questions and Answers

My area was to be covered under the commercial rollout by now but BT say they won’t be doing it. What can you do to help?

Unfortunately the current funding does not cover this cabinet as it was stated as being covered under the commercial rollout. However, any information relating to a cabinet that is in a commercial area but not being upgraded is useful as it allows reclassification for inclusion into the project’s intervention area.  The availability of new money which is due to be announced shortly by the Government is designed to address issues such as this. As soon as we receive details of the new money we will be starting work to model where this can be spent.

When will the project be complete by?

The network deployment under the current funding is planned to be completed by Spring 2016

There is still a large area in the region that will not be included in the fibre roll-out either as part of this project or as part of the commercial roll-out and yet communities in these areas are crying out for improved broadband speeds.  What plans if any do you have for addressing this?

This project is a stepping stone to the EU targets for 2020 of all Europeans having access to broadband above 30 Mbps and 50% connected to and using 100 Mbps. Additional government funds are proposed in the future to enable this to happen and we aim to increase the fibre footprint as soon as money is available.

Frequently asked general broadband questions can be found on our website at:

http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/the-project/frequently-asked-questions

Questions about the contract or rollout can be found at:

http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/the-project/bduk-contract-qas

Broadband

Superfast Broadband Review of 2013

Review of the year

As we approach the end of the year this is a good time to reflect back on all that has happened over the past 12 months, so here is a quick round-up:

January

After a lot of work on the part of the project team, including an extensive Open Market Review to understand what the commercial providers’ plans were, the project entered the procurement phase and the Invitation to Tender was issued. The website was also restructured to reflect the new stage of the project.

February

Call for final locations of cabinets so that we could challenge the information that we were receiving from bidders. Detailed maps published showing the information that we held right down to individual property level. This was dependent on the cabinets being in the locations where we thought they were!

March

Responding to queries from potential bidders and preparing for tender evaluation.

April

Tenders returns received and evaluation commenced. The information from Champions and from survey returns was extremely useful in helping us to test the information that we were given in the tender documentation. This was particularly helpful in challenging the distance of properties from the actual locations of the cabinets – and therefore the speeds that are likely to be achievable.

May

Evaluation and challenge of tender return documents continued. Champions map went live on the website showing where the champions are located and survey returns. Businesses were invited to register as potential sub-contract suppliers to the project. We started to hold consultation events in each area. 10,000th survey response received – the sender of that survey won £20 in Amazon vouchers.

June

Contract with BT announced.  £14.57m project to achieve 91% fibre coverage by spring 2016. Additional 40,000 premises to achieve superfast speeds over and above the commercial broadband rollout. Launch event held at the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick and mini launch events continued in the five Warwickshire Districts. We started the project initiation activities, including the start of the modelling work for the additional £750 public funding that we attracted to the project through the procurement process

July

Website upgraded to show the current status of the project now that contracts were signed. The CSW Broadband team visited the BT Network Academy to learn about how broadband infrastructure has evolved over the years, and how the new network is to be installed. Project initiation activities continued.

August

New maps on the website show the areas that were under investigation for superfast broadband and which were awaiting additional funding. The Expression of Interest for the potential Rural Community Broadband Fund bid was accepted by DeFRA

September

Launch event held in Solihull. A major overhaul of the website took place with a new look and structure and lots of new information, including a video showing how the network will be rolled out. The changes were very well received. We also explained the strategic CuRe process that BT were undertaking – Cu = copper, Re = re-alignment. This is where BT are looking at the existing copper network that has evolved over more than 100 years to ensure that the copper runs are as short as practically possible as broadband does degrade very quickly over runs of copper wire.

October

We carried out the first physical surveys for cabinets. This was an instructive exercise and enabled the team to see at first hand the variables such as the availability of power, planning considerations and highways regulations that can impact on the siting of the new cabinets. At the very end of the month we received new data from BT confirming an additional 6,480 premises above those that were in the original contract would be connected to the fibre network, bringing the total project coverage to over 51,000 homes and businesses – and this is on top of the BT commercial rollout.

November

We applied for State Aid approval for the data that we had received from BT at the end of October. This is necessary to meet our funding requirements and, among other things, ensures that we are not spending money in an area that is to be covered under one or more commercial providers’ rollout plans. New maps published on the website depicting the new data.

December

We are still awaiting State Aid approval from BDUK, which we are informed will be received before Christmas. Also eagerly anticipating the first 12-month rolling plan and, as always, we will make the information available as soon as we are able to. In the meantime, we are continuing to respond to specific queries, working on the data that has been received, and actively seeking out additional funding. On that note, we are hoping that an announcement will be made in the Autumn Statement that is due on 5th December about the additional £250m Government funding – more news about that in the next newsletter

Rightmove to show broadband speeds on property details

Rightmove is an online property sales and rental database and now shoes “typical” speeds for each of the 1 million+ homes listed on its website. The data is provided by Point Topic and will show what the average speed is and what can be achieved with it. If superfast is not yet available but a go-live date has been announced this will also be shown. This is a very positive move as we have several instances of people who have moved from towns into the countryside only to find that the broadband that they had come to take for granted was not available. It should be noted that there are local variables that mean the data may not always be accurate, for instance distance from the cabinet and all the other factors that we have mentioned previously.

Key dates looking forward

There is some confusion over dates for different targets for broadband so here’s the key dates:

2014 CSW Broadband rollout starts
2015 Original Government target for 90% superfast ie 24Mbps (this is no longer achievable since it took so long to get European approval for State Aid issues)
2016 CSW Broadband rollout under current funding completes by end of the year, 91% superfast availability
2017 Government target for 95% superfast
2020 EU target to achieve 100% 30Mbps availability (although there is no funding on the horizon at present for this)

Thank You

It only remains to say a massive THANK YOU to all of our Champions, to those who have completed surveys and to those who have emailed or contacted us through social media with your comments and questions. Your input and feedback has been brilliant. Together we have shaped the project thus far and, to be honest, have become equally frustrated at the rate of progress. It now feels as though we are on the threshold of a real leap forward. Thank you for your forbearance – 2014 promises to be an exciting time!