Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

Superfast Broadband Update

Minutes:

In attendance for this item were:

 

Openreach

Connie Dixon, Partnership Director, Wales and West of England

Adam Johnstone, Regional Programme Manager, Building Digital (BD) UK South, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, Fibre and Network Delivery

Lindsay Booth, BDUK Project Manager

 

Worcestershire County Council

Ste Ashton, Senior Project Manager

Robert Stepniewski, Project Manager

 

Ste Ashton, Senior Project Manager from the Council’s Directorate of Economy and Infrastructure explained that the update on Superfast Broadband would build on previous annual updates to the Panel which was a requirement of the Council’s contracts with BT.

 

The Openreach Regional Director provided a brief recap of progress to date, successes, challenges and how they were being overcome, which was set out in the agenda report. It was important to note the challenges involved but the strength of partnership working in Worcestershire was emphasised and this had helped to deliver targets, whilst still being subject to constructive challenge.

 

BT Openreach (now Openreach) had had a relationship with the Council for seven years and during that time superfast coverage across Worcestershire had risen from 69% to 96.7%, which was a fantastic achievement. In 2013 the Council signed its first contract with Openreach, which had taken superfast broadband to over 90% of the county’s residential and business premises (adding just under 59,000 properties and businesses through the programme). Contract 2 was designed to extend fibre infrastructure into even more challenging and harder to reach areas and at the end of December 2019 superfast and ultrafast speeds were available to a further 13,500 premises.

 

As part of contract 3, 3,660 premises had been targeted for a fibre based broadband service in ultra-rural areas and Openreach had been working collaboratively with the Council and its Highways Department to deliver a majority of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) infrastructure within the established intervention area, of which 1600 had been achieved already.

 

The Openreach Regional Programme Manager referred to the positive and challenging aspects of recent progress, with flooding and COVID-19 highlighted as the main challenges – both of which had created delays which would impact on completion of contract 3 (to December 2020). However, he reassured the Panel that work was still being delivered and staff were classed as key workers. Regular updates were provided to the Council, with fortnightly meetings of a collaborative but challenging spirit.

 

The Chairman invited discussion and the following main points were made:

·         It was queried whether the 97% superfast coverage was all achieving 24Mbps or above and it was confirmed that this was correct for 96.7% of premises - in terms of FTTP the figure was 5.6%.

·         Whilst praising the excellent work and success of technology available to residents and businesses in his area, a Panel member asked whether there was a way around the complexity of the Gigabit Voucher Scheme to increase take-up; although successful the complexity was off-putting and it took time to persuade the public that it would not be very expensive. The Openreach Partnership Director agreed that increasing take-up was really important and pointed out that part of the solution was encouraging people to access the right tariffs from their provider. It was also important to identify and target communities which could benefit most from schemes, since many can be delivered at no cost if sufficient demand existed. Nonetheless, Worcestershire was in the top 5 of areas to secure gigabit vouchers. (Just under £2m at present)

·         Another member reiterated this point and added that a further problem for some residents in her area was how to persuade people that fibre broadband packages were available to them, when historical marketing about upgrades had not actually proved possible when they had contacted their provider. The Openreach Regional Director offered to assist with trying to reach a solution for any such instances and took on board the Panel’s message about clear and targeted engagement although these were most likely delivered as part of a wider marketing campaign by various Internet Service Providers.

·         The Openreach representatives clarified that communication about superfast opportunities such as letters to the public would be part of the Council’s remit (rather than Openreach) and the Chairman pointed out that while the new technology available was very good, it was important to communicate this to the public. The team agreed and another letter drop would be planned.

·         The Directorate’s Senior Project Manager agreed with the importance of driving up take-up and explained that the Council had invested considerably, including through a £10k marketing grant from DCMS last year, in more targeted communication; including wrapping cabinets. To promote FTTP, which was less visible to residents, effective approaches had been used via ‘community packs’ and social media and working with community leaders and the district councils and parishes, however new ideas were always welcomed. He also flagged up that there were fewer providers of fibre to the premises than fibre to the cabinet, therefore suppliers were unlikely to promote the availability of FTTP to residents if they did not have this product available – he suggested residents should check with more than one provider and that it may be helpful to produce a fact finder to assist the public and councillors with these issues.

·         When asked, the Directorate Officers explained there was no specific budget currently allocated to marketing via mailshots, but it could be managed within the project budget by officers,  to send marketing letters to inform householders that FTTP was available, although a mailshot had been done during the first quarter of the previous year as a result of a grant. Instead news was communicated via local councillors and parishes and anyone on the Council’s data list was advised directly. The Chairman felt that sending letters would be a worthwhile consideration.

·         The point was made, and supported by several members, that as a consequence of COVID-19 there had been a surge in home working for residents and businesses and that increasingly members were being asked about fibre to the premises (rather than to the cabinet), therefore the Council’s work to improve take-up of voucher schemes and improve superfast broadband speeds above 24Mbps was more important than ever, including for the economy.

·         When asked how an area was defined as rural in terms of connectivity, the Openreach representatives explained that Worcestershire overall was considered rural, although for gigabit schemes there was a map and properties within an area such as Wythall may vary. For the gigabit voucher scheme rurality was based on Defra’s classification of rural versus urban.

·         A Panel member queried whether access to superfast speeds of 24mbps were consistent or variable, and the Openreach Regional Director explained that in general the network withstood extra traffic very well, however (broadband) traffic had increased by 60% during the COVID-10 outbreak, which would affect speeds.

·         Referring to national reports about security issues and the provider Huawei, a Panel member asked the Openreach representatives whether they had any concerns that this could affect progression of plans in Worcestershire? The Regional Director explained that due diligence was undertaken for any procurement to ensure suppliers were compliant, and this would continue to be monitored. A more formal response about this area would be provided for the Panel and it was also confirmed that Openreach always ensured there were other options available. The Directorate Officers advised that Huawei cabinets had been used in the Superfast Worcestershire project, however much of the current attention on Huawei was about their involvement in the 5G networks and increasingly earlier generations of mobile networks, the fibre (DSLAM) cabinets in the Superfast network were not considered as ‘smart/intelligent ’ as for example the mobile core equipment.

·         A member pointed out that the take-up graphs did not really indicate what proportion of the network was covered by FTTC and FTTP, something which would be useful when responding to queries from the public, as well as more detail on the upgrade schedule. The Openreach representatives advised that the statistics provided were as a result of the contract and for example did not include any purely commercial build. More detailed information was however shared with the programme team. More generally, she also advised that Openreach had recently announced its full fibre ambitions in recognition of the need from residents and businesses. The Original target had been to provide this to 4 million homes by late 2020, and work was on track for 4.5million. Openreach had also announced it would connect 20million homes by mid to late 2020, which was a £12 billion investment, and this included a balance across urban and rural locations.

·         Panel members highlighted the difficulty of knowing when FTTP was available since it was not visible, and they were therefore very pleased to hear that the Council’s superfast fibre map was in the process of being updated to include FTTP. The Officers did what they could to announce availability of both project supported build and commercial deployments and also liaised with parishes to share new updates, however it was pointed out that some providers were wary of announcing intentions in a competitive market. The programme team also confirmed that ‘build progress’ remains regularly updated on the Superfast Worcestershire website, including all structures, which had been planned and the indicative area it would likely serve:

·         A Panel member asked whether information from providers on broadband speeds and access was verified, as he had received queries from an estate in his area. The Directorate Officers advised that while not everything could be checked, information was scrutinised and any issues reported were investigated. The Officers would look into the area in question and it could be that some residents had not upgraded.

·         Several Panel members, including the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Environment expressed concern that new development did not include superfast FTTP as standard. The Openreach Regional Director advised that to date, 83% of developments (of 20 or above properties) had superfast FTTP and Openreach worked with them, however more work was needed with developers of smaller plots. The Directorate Officers explained that they notified suppliers about every new build. They highlighted the need for a strong message in Local Development Plans, although their previous efforts had proved frustrating as the final wording had been softened because it was felt too restrictive.

·         Panel members supported the need to liaise with the district councils to highlight the importance of FTTP for every new development.

·         The Chairman asked if there was an update on the outcome of submissions to secure a further £1.5m additional funding from DEFRA, and the Senior Project Manager agreed to provide more detail.

 

In summary, the Chairman congratulated those involved for the excellent achievements made so far. Progress with superfast broadband was a good news story although there was more work to do, in particular to extend gigabit capable infrastructure and the investment in this from Openreach was welcomed.

 

In summary:

 

·         It was recommended that the Directorate Project Team send letters to all residents to inform them about network upgrades and availability of FTTP in their area (copied to the appropriate county and district councillors).

·         The importance of new development incorporating fibre to the premises should be highlighted strongly to district councils and recommended for inclusion in local plans, pending action from Government to make it mandatory.

·         Communication with the public was an important theme and consideration should be given to making the voucher scheme easier to access to encourage take-up.

 


 

The following information was requested:

 

·         Further detail on how Openreach compliance of suppliers including Huawei would be provided to the Panel (Openreach)

·         A fact finder sheet for all councillors (Directorate Project Officers)

·         Further information about the outcome of additional funding from DEFRA.

 

The meeting adjourned for a 5 minute break.

Supporting documents: