Homepage » News Archive » View News Item 5521

BT a step closer to winning another BDUK project
Monday 29 October 2012 10:08:09 by Andrew Ferguson

Devon and Somerset who are working together on a joint BDUK project that is worth some £51m (£31m from BDUK, and £10m from each council) is one step closer to being formally awarded to BT.

Back in September a newsletter to people in the area revealed that Fujitsu had not even submitted a tender, so it has been likely that BT would win the contract. The latest news from the Plymouth Herald is that BT has been appointed with the small matter now of due diligence that runs for two weeks.

One the contract is finally signed we will know how much BT is contributing to the scheme, and hopefully the current figures of 100% receiving 2 Mbps, and a minimum of 85% of properties at 25 Mbps or faster by 2015, and continuing work until 2020 when it will be 100% receiving superfast broadband.

Another contract going to BT is going to upset the critics of the BDUK process, but in this case with Fujitsu not even tendering the only other option appears to have been no project at all. The basic idea behind the BDUK process that it is a public private partnership with the commercial bidder putting up many millions in each county is what scared away many of the small and large firms that tender for these sorts of projects usually.

[ Topic: Broadband | 19 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by jchannon 7 months ago
I'd like to know what 85% coverage is. Is it population? If so this whole thing is void as I thought the point of this project was to get to those of us in villages

Posted by zyborg47 7 months ago
Maybe Fujitsu know that iit is not worth bothering because Bt will get it anyway.

what is it a mate of mine says, oh yes funny handshakes

Posted by taras 7 months ago
I'm not happy that tax payers are funding "BT openreach" roll out.

BT must now be far more transparent on costs and also information to the public as to which cabs and exchanges with be converted to FTTx

Posted by GMAN99 7 months ago
@taras, are you covered by BT's own rollout?

Assuming you are, lets say if you weren't would you be happy that tax payers paid for you to have better broadband then?

I don't think the amount in tax per person (you paid for it ages ago BTW) amounts to much, I'm happy to pay for others to get better broadband.

Posted by Spectre_01 7 months ago
Its a shame no one else wanted to submit a tender but it goes to show that rolling out network infrastructure will not return a profit in many cases.

Fujitsu obviously didn't bother as it knew it could not match Openreach's offer simple as that. Conspiracy theories all you like Z, bottom line is Fujitsu has done this many times before with other council tenders.

Posted by themanstan 7 months ago
coverage is generally by properties

Posted by leexgx 7 months ago
how would it work with Fujitsu if thye did do the work and install the cabs, do they still use BT network

as i never really looked into how Fujitsu would get the connection from the boxs to the house

Posted by zyborg47 7 months ago
Funny hand shakes is the expression my mate would use and most of the time I just ignore him, but sometimes I do think he could be right. i also don't think the tax payers should be paying for this roll out to fill BT pockets either and yes we do have fibre where I am, but I am not using it. too much of a monopoly Bt have got.

Posted by GMAN99 7 months ago
So what is the alternative zyborg, the areas the funding is going to goes without?

Posted by andrew ( staff member) 7 months ago
@leegx Fujitsu talked of full fibre to the home, but info suggests at a lower than 90% level with fixed wireless and 4G making up the remainder

Posted by themanstan 7 months ago
@leexgx

In fact you'll see Fujitsu vans outside BT exchanges doing work on infrastructure. They provide both BT and VM with services.

Interesting views of subsidies here, that they should only be used to help non-BT roll-out. Why because BT is a big company? VM and Fujitsu are both big companies. So should subsidies be for SME?

Posted by GMAN99 7 months ago
^ exactly. Ok to fund other private companies but not big bad BT

Posted by failand 7 months ago
My analysis for North Somerset suggests that 85% rollout is only likely to reach exchanges having more than 2,500 lines, typically a large village. You can find out how many lines your exchange has at http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

Posted by andrew ( staff member) 7 months ago
Real unknown is the period from 2015 to 2020 when ALL should have superfast.

Posted by chris6273 7 months ago
@failand Out of interest, how did your analysis cause you to arrive at that conclusion?

Our 1400 line exchange in Somerset was the first Village exchange in the area to get ADSL2+ before a slightly larger exchange nearby.

Depending on what technology BT uses to roll out its infrastructure, I doubt the amount of lines on an exchange will have that much of an effect on the end decision. I'd say if BT do a good job at it, they would be looking more at the number of lines served by certain cabinets than the total number of lines on an exchange.

Posted by zyborg47 7 months ago
I don't know what the alternative is GMAN99, I wish I did. But I do know that paying Bt tax payers money so it can make more out of a network which it got dead cheap in the first place is not right. We should not be tied to one telecoms company and no matter how you look at it, the whole country relise on one big company. BT

Posted by fastman 7 months ago
zyborg i expect the majority of wahtwill be funded by government will be for fibre (FTTC) and some FTTP and other technologies but majority of fibre -- those exchanges that are ADSL2 are a stepping stone to enabling that exchnage for TTc as some exchnage work will ahve already been carried out upgrading to ADSL2

Posted by Somerset 7 months ago
zyborg - we rely on one company to deliver all our gas and electricity.

Posted by failand 7 months ago
Number of lines is obviously the principal determinant of FTTC viability. In North Somerset, the 5 7000+ line exchanges have FTTC or are due to get it, only 1 of the 11 smaller exchanges is FE, 10 are NC.