Cumbria rejects tenders from both BT and Fujitsu
Thursday 14 June 2012 16:18:59 by Andrew Ferguson

Some have been saying that BT has Cumbria in the bag with respect to the counties BDUK project, but it seems the council has rebuffed the existing advances from both BT and Fujtisu with concerns over the amount of funding from the bidders and the ability to hit the 90% of homes and businesses having access to superfast broadband target for 2015.

The project represents some £40m of subsidy to the winning bidder, but whoever wins the bid is expected to closely match fund or exceed this amount. It is thought that the solution from Fujitsu will revolve around a full fibre to the premises roll-out, with fixed wireless for the most costly to reach areas, while BT is likely to relying on its usual mixture of full and partial fibre, plus smaller amounts of fixed wireless or satellite to cover the most remote areas.