Delayed rollout for Superfast Berkshire broadband

Lack of engineering capacity in the broadband industry to blame, says council

THE rollout of superfast broadband in Berkshire has been delayed by up to a year because of engineering quality and capacity issues.

Superfast Berkshire was initiated in 2013 and used state aid assistance to provide properties in rural areas of the county access to speeds of up to 24mbps.

West Berkshire’s superfast coverage has increased from 65 per cent to 97 per cent under the programme, which has seen the county’s coverage increase from 87 per cent to around 97 per cent.

West Berkshire Council, which is the lead local authority for the project, said it was promised that superfast broadband coverage would exceed 99 per cent across Berkshire by September 2019 when the Superfast Berkshire phase 3 contracts were signed with BT Group and Gigaclear last year.

However, it has announced that a lack of engineering capacity in the broadband industry, along with the rapid expansion of Gigaclear’s commitments, means that suppliers are unable to meet their original contractual delivery targets in Berkshire.

West Berkshire’s executive member for customer services and broadband Dominic Boeck (Con, Aldermaston) said: “We’re working closely with both suppliers to minimise these delays and to meet the broadband expectations of our communities.

“We’ve also experienced quality issues with some of the engineering works already completed by Gigaclear during their phase 2 rollout and we expect that this remedial work will take at least 18 months to complete and will start in November 2018.

“This will be a separate programme and it should not slow down the rollout of remaining phase 2 broadband connections, nor affect those customers whose connections are already live on Gigaclear’s network.”

“Any extra programme costs associated with this late delivery and other remedial works will be borne by the contractors and will not come from public funds.”

Gigaclear’s phase 2 delivery, in West Berkshire, scheduled for completion by October 2017 is now forecast for May 2019, 20 months behind schedule, with 1,530 of 16,011 premises still awaiting their fibre broadband connections.

Gigaclear’s phase 3 delivery for Berkshire, scheduled for completion by September 2019, is now forecast for December 2019, three months behind schedule.

BT’s phase 3 delivery for Berkshire, scheduled for completion by December 2018, is now a year behind schedule.

Speaking earlier this year, the council’s chief executive Nick Carter said that a lack of subcontractor capacity had been brought up in discussions surrounding the project’s delay.

“They can’t find people to do the digging and in some cases the digging is not being done to a good quality.

“That’s what they are saying, but I suspect there are other issues. The one that’s frequently mentioned is subcontracting.”

Gigaclear chief executive Mike Surrey said: “Gigaclear apologises for delays encountered with these deliveries, we are confident that under new ownership and with a new management team in place we will work with the Superfast Berkshire team to complete these projects without further operational delays, delivering ultrafast broadband to all the properties in our contracted areas.”

In total, more than £40m will have been invested in the Superfast Berkshire programme by both the private and public sector to deliver superfast broadband, including £29.3m from partners BT, Gigaclear and Call Flow Solutions, £5.5m from Berkshire local authorities and Thames Valley Berkshire LEP and £5.2m from central Government.