Issue - meetings

Report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport

26.1     The Committee considered a report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport which provided an update on the strategic infrastructure in East Sussex. The Committee agreed to discuss the section of the report on the Superfast Broadband project first, to allow questions to be put from a number of other Councillors who were attending the meeting.

Superfast Broadband

26.2     The Director for Communities, Economy and Transport (CET) explained that the project includes an initial contract, awarded to BT Openreach, to provide fibre based infrastructure to enable properties to be connected to Superfast broadband services. This contract is the second best performing broadband contract in the UK in terms of coverage and speeds achieved. A second contract has been awarded to improve download speeds and to look at alternative solutions for hard to reach areas. The deployment of the second contract is due to start in June 2016.

26.3     Officers informed the Committee that the project has been working in all exchange areas across East Sussex, but is not allowed to deliver infrastructure improvements where the private sector is delivering or planning to deliver Superfast broadband in the next three years. Outside of the project there is nothing to prevent private individuals, or businesses, from paying for improved connectivity to meet their needs. As at December 2015 the take up of fibre based services was just over 25% against a target of 20%.

26.4     In response to questions from the Committee, officers set out:

• Value for money - The project has secured £10.6m of government funding and the value for money test and criteria are set by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK, the Government department located within the Department for Culture Media and Sport). The value for money cap, which the project cannot exceed, has been set by BDUK at £1,700 per property. This can pose difficulties in rural areas where the distance to a fibre enabled exchange or cabinet can be greater. The project delivery costs are currently just under £500 per property, which has enabled funding to be re-invested in the second contract.
• Download speeds - Typically in rural areas properties are connected to cabinets by copper cabling. Broadband speeds are affected by the length of copper cable that connects properties to fibre enable cabinets or exchanges. So an area may be fibre enabled, but this may not lead to faster download speeds. The second contract aims to tackle this in addition to looking for other solutions to provide faster broadband in hard to reach areas.
• Hard to reach properties - They are defined by the cost of connecting them to the fibre enabled network and does not necessarily mean they are more geographically or technically challenging to connect to the fibre enabled network. As a consequence it is much harder to meet the value for money criteria for these properties.
• Responsibility for connecting properties to Superfast Broadband - The project aims to install the infrastructure necessary to enable access to faster broadband in areas that would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26