A first hint about the impact of the new EU state aid scheme?
North Yorkshire's BDUK project has had a "phase 3" project (its main SEP project) in the pipeline for a while now, and the strategy has changed again.
Plans originally stalled over a year ago, essentially because BT were running out of cabinets to apply FTTC to, FTTP was too expensive, and FTTRN wasn't cost-effective. The council was waiting on the general election to see if funding would end up being directed at wireless projects - which kinda depended on those "market pilot" schemes we saw.
Last Autumn, SFNY came up with a "phase 3" SEP plan that incorporated £10m SEP funding, nearly £8m "overage" funding (ie early high-takeup money) and an unspecified amount of "infill" coverage (from BT's commitment to 2Mbps minimum speeds). Phase 3 would take coverage from 88% to 95% - and the money looked destined for BT. No wireless mentioned, so the "market pilots" looked like they were something of a dead end.
However, that version of the plan depended on North Yorkshire being able to extend their own OJEU approval for state aid. It appears that BDUK-central torpedoed that idea, as they wanted every LA to work under the new UK-wide scheme, so more delays ensued.
Now SFNY are asking for approval for their new plan - which has to fall back to an all-new tendering process, meeting the new state-aid terms. There are a few highlights from the process:
- They are allowing £3m to run this process ... you hope the new bids can scrape through an extra few thousand properties of coverage, because that's a lot of fibre that the £3m could have been spent on.
- They've consulted as to whether the bid should be one lot, or many. Answer: one.
- They've consulted as to the approach: "maximise coverage" vs "target specific areas, and get 100% coverage in that area". Answer: "maximise coverage".
- The scheme would include a "change control" mechanism that allowed for extra funding to be used to target specific communities.
- Market reaction to the new-style EU state-aid rules is "mixed".
- Funding totals appear to broadly match the previous scheme, including the £7.8m "overage", making a total of roughly £20m. There is £700k to use for targeting specific communities.
- No mention that the £7.8m "overage" has/had a constraint of being spent with BT.
- The plans now seem to assume that phase 3 will take coverage from 91% to 95%; perhaps the "infill" portion has been moved back to within phase 2, lifting the old coverage target of 88% to 91%.
- Takeup in phases 1 and 2 is at 35%, with the increase trending at 0.7% per month.
The new plan can be found here:
Council meeting, 26th July 2016.The previous plan can be found here:
Council meeting, 8th Sept 2015.The first thoughts on phase 3, mulling wireless, can be found here:
Council meeting, 18th Nov 2014.
