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Rutland entering into contract with BT
Friday 23 March 2012 08:45:07 by Andrew Ferguson

The county of Rutland should start to see things happening soon hopefully now that the contract for providing superfast broadband in the county has been awarded. At a meeting on 19th March 2012 councillors voted to award the contract for the Digital Rutland Project to BT, with the caveat that EC State Aid approval is received.

The councils aim is for 90% of the county to receive speeds of 25 Mbps or faster Mbps, and the remaining harder to reach properties receiving something in the range 2 Mbps to 24 Mbps. Some £710,000 was awarded to the area by the BDUK, and the the council is to borrow £2.3m from the Public Works Loan Board, additional funds will come from BT.

The timescale is such that there is now a pause while State Aid approval is given, and a timescale of 12 months to deploy the network with this work commencing in October 2012.

[ Topic: Broadband | 25 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by logjam about 1 year ago
This is further predatory behaviour from BT. The project would have combined perfectly with the existing networks that Rutland Telecom have deployed. Why the Council couldn't have supported their own experts in this area is a mystery.
Posted by EnglishRob about 1 year ago
That's going to be a kick in the teeth for Rutland Telecom. I really am surprised since Rutland Telecom have already started providing FTTC services in the area.

Rob
Posted by Somerset about 1 year ago
Rutland Telecom don't wholesale. How do you get cheap Sky broadband down a Rutland line?
Posted by New_Londoner about 1 year ago
Good to see service expanding in a rural area. Presumably the issue with RT is lack of a wholesale option to provide a choice of service providers?
Posted by billyliar about 1 year ago
They won't get State Aid approval in areas where Rutland Telecom are already operating. Also, they won't get State Aid approval unless any network deployed is 'open access' (including the passive layer).
Posted by herdwick about 1 year ago
Rutland Telecom did one FTTC project 2 years ago, another last year but failed to get a 3rd off the ground. One FTTMansion project this year. Not exactly 90% coverage.

Openreach FTTC already in parts of Rutland.
Posted by herdwick about 1 year ago
Openreach meets the State Aid requirements with wholesale products and PIA.
Posted by logjam about 1 year ago
There is no reason why Rutland Telecom couldn't (or wouldn't) offer wholesale access. It would follow Fujitsu announcement they would provide the core fibre assets for other ISPs to use in rural areas allocated funds by the Government.
Posted by andrew (Favicon staff member) about 1 year ago
Did Rutland Telecom actually bid for the contract?
Posted by BBpeter25 about 1 year ago
Any improvement will be most welcome. 2 Meg in deepest Rutland if I'm lucky!! Roll on the autumn. Trust this isn't just for BT retail customers.
Posted by billyliar about 1 year ago
@herdwick

Not if they are using public money to compete against existing providers of Next Generation services they don't. State Aid regulations stipulate that where there is a provider (or there are published plans to deliver the infrastructure) then public funding cannot be used because it would be unfair. The argument will be over what an 'area' is.
Posted by andrew (Favicon staff member) about 1 year ago
@BBpeter25

It is Openreach and BT Wholesale services, so there will be the full range who offer BT Wholesale based services.

Also if FTTC/P is available and the exchange is unbundled by Sky/TalkTalk their products will be available too.
Posted by Michael_Chare about 1 year ago
IMHO only providing a 2mbps for up to 10% is inadequate. If they can't sensibly increase the 25mbps target to something like 98% they ought to set a lower limit of say 8bbps. I live in Kent where the BDUK are providing similar funding. My line connects at say 1.5mbps. It would be quite easy for BT to increase this to say 2.5mbps by rolling out FTTC to the rather distant cabinet and then allowing me to connect anyway (i.e. <5mbps). The BDUK target would be met but my connection would not improve that much.
Posted by herdwick about 1 year ago
@billyliar I'm sure Rutland and BDUK will know what white, grey and black areas they have and tender accordingly.

They won't get State Aid clearance for NGA where Openreach is operating FTTC either.
Posted by jumpmum about 1 year ago
@herdwick I cannot find any Rutland exchanges on the Openreach FTTC/P lists, So only the two Rutland Telecom sites to miss. Might actually get complaints from people within those areas because they will be locked into RT only.
Posted by herdwick about 1 year ago
Openreach have FTTC in Rutland like I said, unless Ryhall has defected to Lincolnshire.
Posted by herdwick about 1 year ago
The tender said: "The ambition is to:
— Provide Next Generation Broadband for a minimum of 99 % of Rutland County by 2013, offering higher speeds and wider bandwidths as further described in the contract documentation,
— Operation of an open provider model leading to a range of communication providers in the market place for both wholesale and retail markets,
— Increased demand and customer choice in communication providers leading to competition for ISP provision and cheaper applications and services.
Posted by mervl about 1 year ago
like the bit about cheaper applications and services. Who's betting?
Posted by orozz about 1 year ago
Ryhall definitely is still in Rutland. We are served by the Stamford exchange hence the availability of FTTC and so far getting a great BT Infinity service :-)
Posted by pavvyben about 1 year ago
You think they'll bring FTTC to Oakham with this investment?
Posted by andrew (Favicon staff member) about 1 year ago
And if your current generation of broadband is ADSL then Next Gen is ADSL2+ of course.
Posted by pavvyben about 1 year ago
So you think if you can get ADSL2+ now, you'll be getting FTTC? I really hope Oakham is in their for FTTC roll out.
Posted by themanstan about 1 year ago
@Andrew

Any word from BT on whether today's £2B pension deficit deal will affect investment in Next Gen?
Posted by CaptainHulaHoop about 1 year ago
I would say if anything, the big deficit reduction on the pension shows cash flow is good in the company, so would imagine if anything more money will available to invest in NGA in near future. The "city" liked it, and the share price jumped up 10%
Posted by jumpmum about 1 year ago
@Herdwick
I was looking for exchanges in Rutland, of which there are none in the 3 lists. Stamford shows in Lincs, didn't realise it served part of Rutland as well.
@Pavvyben
It covers all the unserved areas, so Oakham will be covered unless there is a commercial rollout.
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