B4RDS meeting Dec 15 Colliton Barton
B4RDS Agenda – Dec 15 • What’s been happening since August ? • CDS’s current plans for Phase 2 • The Government’s plans for Phase 3........ • What should B4RDS be doing now? • Next meeting • AOB
What’s been happening since August? • DCC Extraordinary Scrutiny meeting Sept 3 (B4RDS input supported by FSB, NFU, CLA, CSA) • EDDC Scrutiny Meeting Nov 12 (CDS report) • DCC Place Scrutiny Meeting Nov 16 (CDS report) • EDDC Cabinet Meeting Dec 2 (Scrutiny report) • CDS Phase 2 Supplier Day Dec 4 • DCC Full Council Meeting Dec 10 (Scrutiny report) • Various newspaper articles & TV/Radio interviews
Confirmed Phase 2 funding June 30 2015 BDUK allocation BDUK Phase 2 alloc’n
£22.75M
If fully matched £for£
£45.5M
Less NP Airband con’t
£4.4M*
Total available for rest of Devon & Somerset
£41.1M
Airband Nat’l Parks contract: DCC & SCC £1.4M HoSW LEP £0.7M Nat Parks Authority £0.13M West Somerset Council £0.07M Total match funding
£2.3M
Add in BDUK funding
£2.1M
Total inc BDUK funding £4.4M
Match funding raised DCC & SCC HoSW LEP Bath & NES DC
£2.78M £9.5M £0.2M
North Somerset DC
£0.2M
Mendip DC
£0.4M
Sedgemoor DC
£0.34M
South Somerset DC
£0.64M
Total match funding £14.61M Add in BDUK funding £19.89M Total, inc BDUK funding £34.5M Shortfall
£6.6M
*Airband also put in another £485k
Connecting Devon and Somerset ‘The biggest Digital Infrastructure build opportunity for rural communities in England’ Superfast Extension Programme 04th December 2015
Introducing the CDS Team • Keri Denton – Programme Director • Phil Roberts – Programme Manager • Matt Ballard – Programme Manager • Ken Singleton- Technical advisor • Martin Gerrish - Finance • Sofie Francis – Communications • Iain Perkins - Procurement and Contracts • Karen Bohan - Officer • Nathaniel Lucas – Officer • Matt Barrow – Officer • Louise Jarman– Officer • Katriona Lovelock Officer • Rem Noormohamed – Legal advisor
BDUK Approach to State aid • BDUK approach to State aid is to progress a twin-track process to a flexible approach for local bodies to either:– Pursue an ‘umbrella’ Notification: A process where the Commission examines how the scheme conforms to the 2013 Broadband Guidelines and whether any derogations are necessary; and – as an alternative – Support General Block Exemption Regulation II (GBER II) Article 52: For smaller schemes and projects (schemes less than €150 million or projects less than €70 million).
• GBER compliant projects do not require notification, but are subject to strict criteria regarding the deployment of broadband, in particular, requiring the provision of full open access.
• BDUK is aligning the two approaches as much as possible, incorporatingPage recent 33 best practice, as well as reflecting on our conversations with the Commission,
Use of GBER II The full requirements of the Broadband Guidelines flow through to any procurements seeking to utilise GBER II as their State aid ‘approval’ route. The key requirements for procurements under GBER II is that they will need to provide full open access and where targeted to provide NGA services:– Fibre to the Premise – duct access, dark fibre, physical unbundling and bitstream. – Fibre to the Cabinet – duct access, dark fibre, sub-loop unbundling and bitstream – Fixed Wireless Access – mast, antennae, backhaul and bitstream
• Key principle is that access is not limited to broadband uses and that other forms of access e.g. mobile has to be provided subject to reasonableness test. Page 34
Coverage requirements • • • •
Very rural; sparsely populated; difficult terrain No large clusters of unserved premises Spread across entire Programme Area Probably the largest number of unserved premises in the UK • BUT significant pent-up demand from poor speed areas
Connecting Devon and Somerset
National Parks
Postcodes with NGA White Premises
Heat Map showing density of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Example of Possible Zones
NGA White Premises (ref Feb 15 OMR currently in revision)
19,000
14,000 15,000 19,000 24,000
19,000
NGA White Premises per km2
25 11 11 7 12
15
Heat Map overlaid with postcode locations
Heat Map of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Heat Map of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Heat Map of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Heat Map of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Heat Map of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Heat Map of NGA White Premises
Average of NGA White Premises per km2 25 7 6 5 0.5
Predicted Geographical Coverage at the end of Phase 1 Contract
Yellow – one superfast provider Blue - no superfast provision
Questions & Answer Session
End of CDS Supplier Day slides
What will be happening over the next few months? • Somerset FSB meeting Dec 18 • Matt Warman MP, APPG “Not Spot Summit”, Jan • Ofcom report on BT Openreach, end Jan • BDUK announcement on Phase 3, Dec/Jan ? • BDUK Phase 2 state aid approval, Feb ? • CDS Phase 2 ITT publication, Feb ? • CDS Phase 2 contracts signed, June/July ? • CDS Phase 2 completion Dec 2017? • District and County Council meetings, cabinet meetings, scrutiny meetings every month. • County Council elections, May 2017
BT Phase 1 Clawback Clause • BT Phase 1 contracts have a clawback clause which returns money to County Councils when 20% and 40% take up is reached (because BT benefits from takeup) • In June 2015, Vaizey & Cameron announced that £129m was now being paid back* • Amounts already claimed: Cambridgeshire, £5.3M; Norfolk, £5.3M; Suffolk, 3.9M; Worcestershire, £3M; Cumbria 2.5M • CDS take up is 18%, but have claimed nothing and say they will not do so until end of 2016. (It is estimated that CDS is due £9.7M now) • * On Dec 9, BDUK said that another £100M of underspend is also due to County Councils
Phase 3 ? • Vouchers for “free” hardware from selected suppliers could be posted to “final 5%” postcodes any day now • But CDS will not know “final 5%” postcodes until Phase 2 contracts signed (June 2016) • Satellite Internet Ltd (Astra) pilots in Priddy, Luxborough and Simonsbath, indicate that ISP charges will be: – £25/mo for 5GB/mo – £42.50/mo for 20GB/mo – £69.99/mo for 50GB/mo
Plus £99.95 connection fee, plus £7/mo for a VOIP channel, plus £7/mo for unlimited data transfers between 11pm & 7am
• Skype is described as being available on a “best efforts basis” (Connection speed “up to 25Mbps”)
What should B4RDS be doing now? • Lobbying (the act of attempting to influence central & local government legislators): MP’s, County Councils, District Councils • Building and maintaining communication links with CDS, BDUK, District & County Councils • Raising public awareness of the rural broadband issue: Newspapers, TV, Radio, parish meetings, clubs, WI etc etc.....giving people the facts. • Challenging unwarranted positive spin • Supporting positive achievements
What should B4RDS be doing now? • We need people to speak at Council meetings • We need people to write/email MP’s and Councillors • We need people to write/email newspapers and give interviews to the media • There is lots of material available to use • It is a numbers game
Next B4RDS meeting? • Soon after state aid approval is obtained and the CDS Phase 2 ITT is published (Feb) • By Feb we should know if District Councils stand any chance of running their own programmes • Speakers, who have agreed “in principle” – Chris Townsend, CEO, BDUK – Matthew Hare, CEO, Gigaclear
• Make it a “fully open” meeting • Blackdown Hills AONB Parish Network may be interested in being joint host
Any Other Business?
All slides shown this evening are available at: http://issuu.com/gglong/docs/b4rds_dec_15.pptx/1 A full set of the slides shown at the CDS Supplier Day is available at: http://issuu.com/gglong/docs/cds_sep_market_event_-_pdf/1
CDS Programme Board •
Cllr. Andrew Leadbetter, Cabinet Member for Economy and Growth, Devon County Council
•
Cllr David Hall, Deputy Leader, Somerset County Council
•
Dr Phil Norrey, Chief Executive Officer, Devon County Council (Joint Chairman)
•
Patrick Flaherty, Chief Executive Officer, Somerset County Council (Joint Chairman)
•
Dr Alan Srbljanin, Project Director, BDUK. c/o Dept of Culture Media and Sport
•
David Turner, Director, Development and Environment, North Somerset Council
•
John Wilkinson, Economic Enterprise and Business Development Manager, Bath & NE Somerset Council
•
Nick Ames, Managing Director, Supacat Ltd
•
Paula Hewitt, Director of Environmental Management and Regeneration, Somerset County Council
•
Keri Denton, Head of Economy and Enterprise, Devon County Council
•
Cllr John Williams – Leader, Taunton Deane Borough Council
•
Steve Jorden – Head of Paid Service, South Hams and West Devon District Councils