Openreach take on North Shropshire and West Herefordshire Project Gigabit contracts

BDUK has announced that Openreach will take on two Project Gigabit contracts after the altnets originally building decided to pull out of the contracts. 8,500 premises were descoped from the Freedom Fibre build for North Shropshire in June 2025 after the company pulled out of the contract after building 3,500 of the promised coverage. The original contract was for 12,000 premises and was valued at £24 million.

Openreach has now been announced as the replacement provider, and the premises of this original contract have now been moved into the ‘call-off three’, which covers other parts of Shropshire.

In West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean, a contract was in place with FullFibre, and this was mutually terminated between BDUK and FullFibre in May 2025. Openreach has again been chosen as the replacement provider for this area, and it has been added to call-off three as well, which also includes other parts of Herefordshire. The contract value for this was originally valued at £23 million and included 7,900 premises.