UK Superfast Broadband Projects Directory 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK Prepared by: Annelise Berendt Date: 14 February 2014 Version: 1.0 Point Topic Ltd 73 Farringdon Road London EC1M 3JQ, UK Tel. +44 (0) 20 3301 3305 Email [email protected] Point Topic – UK Plus report – 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK Contents 1. Background 4 2. Introduction 5 3. The service provider picture 8 4. BT Group puts another £50m into the pot 11 4.1 Fibre on Demand developments 11 4.2 Self-install getting closer 12 4.3 Multicast for GEA launched for TV provision 12 4.4 Cornwall passes target and begins to impact local economy 13 4.5 Northern Ireland FTTC network has over 150,000 customers 13 4.6 BT looks to raise its MDU game 14 4.7 Last batch of 19 exchanges quietly announced 14 4.8 BT Retail sees strong fibre-based growth 16 5. Virgin Media increases the speed stakes 17 5.1 Higher speed services and boosts for existing customers 17 5.2 Virgin acquires Smallworld Fibre 17 6. Altnets move into make or break year 18 6.1 CityFibre floats on AIM 18 6.2 Gradwell launches GigaBath based on CityFibre infrastructure 19 6.3 IFNL continues to build homes passed numbers 20 6.4 Hyperoptic launches in Olympic Village 20 6.5 Venus welcomes Connection Voucher Scheme 21 6.6 Community Fibre in Westminster pilot 21 6.7 Velocity1 uses Wembley to showcase the bigger picture 21 6.8 Call Flow Solutions continues private and publicly-funded rollout 22 6.9 Fibre Options seeing increasing developer interest 22 6.10 Gigaclear continues to grow rural footprint 23 6.11 B4RN sticks to its coverage plans 23 6.12 Cybermoor FTTP services go live 24 6.13 LonsdaleNET launches fibre network in Cumbria 24 6.14 TripleConnect in Cumbrian new build fibre deployment 25 6.15 KC fibre connections approach 7,000 lines 25 6.16 The closure of Digital Region 26 6.17 Student fibre sector is a springboard for the wider market 27 Page 2 of 37 Point Topic – UK Plus report – 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK 7. Government says Superfast Britain is on track 28 7.1 New £10 million fund for alternative technology providers 28 7.2 New BDUK chief takes the helm 29 7.3 DCMS commissioned report on the benefits of broadband 29 7.4 Rural Broadband Fund contracts in the delivery stage 30 8. Slow going for the RCBF 31 8.1 Fell End completes first phase 31 8.2 Fibre GarDen to work with ITS Technology Group 31 8.3 Noke issues State aid consultation document 32 8.4 Northmoor plans April start 32 8.5 First RCBF funded cabinet goes live in Rothbury 32 9. Urban broadband voucher scheme rolls out 34 9.1 Ten cities offering voucher scheme 34 10. Devolved nation initiatives update 35 10.1 Digital Scotland and CBS progress 35 10.2 Northern Ireland proposes intervention areas 36 10.3 Superfast Cymru sees over 100,000 premises gain high-speed access 37 Page 3 of 37 Point Topic – UK Plus report – 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK 1. Background This short report provides an update to our August 2013 publication, Superfast UK reviews, rethinks and revises. It covers the latest announcements and activities of the two largest superfast players, BT and Virgin Media. It looks at progress by the country’s alternative infrastructure suppliers, and provides an update on the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) process, and activities at local authority and community level. Further details of the projects mentioned here, and many others, can be found in a separate Superfast broadband projects directory. As with our previous superfast broadband publications, this report focuses on fibre-based network deployments including fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and fibre-to-the- building (FTTB) with the exception of student accommodation. We also refer to superfast cable infrastructure (Docsis 3). Although we do not cover wireless broadband connections specifically, some of the players mentioned use fixed wireless broadband technology as part of their overall offering. Page 4 of 37 Point Topic – UK Plus report – 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK 2. Introduction 2014 will be the crunch year for superfast broadband in the UK. The Government is keen to move on after a barrage of criticism over the past 12 months of the BDUK process and of BT as the only supplier left in the Rural Broadband Fund framework. It is therefore taking care to celebrate progress in achieving its revised target to bring superfast broadband – that is over 24Mbps – to 95 per cent of the country by 2017. Its announcement of a new £10 million fund to support innovative technology solutions for the most remote communities signals a desire to look beyond the past year of county council Local Broadband Plans and contracts, and to bolster funding for the final five per cent given the flagging Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) initiative. This continues to be hampered by wrangling over BT and local authorities’ lack of detail on where these homes and businesses actually lie. A new head at BDUK in April 2014 will also provide something of “a new broom”, and is timed to bring in commercial experience to oversee the next stage of rollout. The demise of the Digital Region network is a blow to the alterative network operators’ case. However, nimbler niche providers are ramping up in urban and rural areas, specialising in terms of premises, location and customers rather than trying to be all things to all end users. Some of these players are now attracting serious funding and the floating of CityFibre on the Stock Exchange’s AIM market suggests growing confidence for specialist providers among the alternative network community. A number of altnets are also involved in the Governments Connection Voucher Scheme. In terms of the two big players, BT Openreach’s predominantly fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) network passed over 18 million premises at the end of January 2014. Virgin Media’s network passed 12,520,100 homes at the end of December 2013. The cable operator’s acquisition of Smallworld Fibre announced in early February 2014 will instantly provide another 40,000 premises. Point Topic has collated the fibre-based projects of 18 active alternative network operators over 35 community-led initiatives, either underway or at various stages of planning, as published in our separate Superfast broadband projects directory. These are diverse in nature and illustrate the range of players and approaches that continue to be active on the UK’s superfast broadband scene. Table 1 gives estimated fibre-based and Docsis 3.0 superfast connections at the end of December 2013 for deployments with connections of 10 lines and above. The majority are to residential properties with some to SMEs. We also provide figures for premises passed, giving Point Topic estimates where actual numbers are not available. Page 5 of 37 Point Topic – UK Plus report – 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK Table 1: Superfast fixed broadband connections, end-December 2013 Operator Project Locations Technology Connections at end Total premises passed December 2013 reported by network (estimates in italics) operators end December 2013 (estimates in italics) Ask4 Leeds FTTB 7,300 10,000 Atlas Middletown, Northern FTTC 50 150 Communications Ireland Arc apartments in FTTB 175 400 Titanic Quarter, Northern Ireland Broadband for Lancashire, phase 1 FTTP 300 460 the Rural North (B4RN) BT Openreach Enabled exchange FTTC 2,386,000 18,000,000 of which areas: BT Infinity estimated 112,000 are FTTP 14,000 FTTP Call Flow Kings Hill, Well Hill & FTTC 1,300 4,000 Solutions Knockholt, Crockenhill & Well Hill, Yalding, Hunton & Collier Street, Rolvenden Chess Telecom Leeds, Liverpool, FTTB 719 1,079 (acquired London Isrighthere) CityFibre Holdings Bournemouth FTTP 250 21,000 Community Fibre Westminster FTTB 20 150 Connexin (took Ashby de la Launde, FTTP 60 65 over assets of Lincolnshire NextGenUs UK CIC) Cybermoor Cumbria FTTP 15 300 Digital Region South Yorkshire FTTC and 3,750 480,000* some FTTP Gigaclear and Rutland FTTC 800 2000 Rutland Telecom Kent, Oxfordshire and FTTP Rutland Fibre Options Derwenthorpe FTTP 60 64 Overbury FTTP 30 90 FizzyLiving Four sites in London FTTB 50 200 G-Ti Gateshead FTTP 80 80 Hampshire Villages of Smannell, FTTC 30 53 County Council Little London and Page 6 of 37 Point Topic – UK Plus report – 2014: crunch year for Superfast UK Enham Hyperoptic London various sites FTTB 5,200 26,000 IFNL Across 17 sites FTTP 6,084 7,180 KC In and round Kingston FTTP, FTTC, 6,980 27,879 upon Hull FTTN, FTTB MediaCityUK Salford Quays in FTTB 244 378 Salford, Greater Manchester Smallworld Fibre Irvine, Dreghorn, Troon Docsis 3 2,500 40,000 (acquired by and Kilarnock in West Virgin Media of Schotland, and February 2014) Carlisle, Lancaster and Morcambe in North- West England TripleConnect Carlisle FTTH 15 25 Velocity1 Wembley, NW London FTTB 630 630 Virgin Media 30 to 100/120Mbps Docsis 3 3,200,000 13,3 54,000** Woolhampton FTTP 10 10 Venus Business Battersea (residential) FTTB 24 24 Communications Vtesse Networks Across deployments in FTTC 220 1,247 (not taking new Hertford, Rugby, orders) Broughton and Hatt and Higher Pill near Saltash, Cornwall West Glasgow FTTP 100 100 Whitlawburn Housing Co- operative WightFibre Isle of Wight Docsis 3, 2,500 13,000 FTTP * Digital Region covers 80% of the homes that are connected to the PCPs it covers. Point Topic estimates this number to be 391,000 of what we count as 617,000 premises in South Yorkshire.