More HS Broadband Issues

More problems with the HS Broadband Rollout seem to be coming to light. BT are dropping some areas from the Commercial Rollout but these will not be included in the BDUK rollout so they are left high and dry unless as further phase of BDUK occurs which at present seems unlikely

No links?

Name the areas?

Haughley Green in Suffolk is one of them

Makes for an interesting 'legal' situation then, as if they 'declared' the areas in the OMR and have now changed their plans.........................

FTTC in Haughley Green was never going to happen, and Openreach has already said as much, even though PCP 24 which serves the village is already fibre enabled because it's over 1.5 miles away.

BT offered to provide a cabinet in Haughley Green (there is fibre running through the village linking two exchanges) at a cost of £40,000. The matter was referred back to the Suffolk County Council so they could argue about who was going to pick up this tab. BT have given a public commitment to provide superfast broadband in Haughley Green by Spring 2014. Whether the commitment will be honoured remains to be seen.

The other villages in the Stowmarket non-intervention area, Battisford, Little Finborough , Combs etc are probably worse off there as there appears to be no sanction in the BDUK contract to enforce commitments relating to non-intervention areas

What do you mean by non intervention area?

A commercially declared area?
Or
Within 85% superfast target area
Or
Outside superfast but within scope for 2Mbps USC
Or
Something else

Were all the companies (including BT) asked for their "commitments" for areas or for their "plans"? I understood they were asked what they were planning to do - but as we all know once you start to do the work there are all sorts of things that can upset plans.

Does anyone actually know that BT are legally committed to deliver to areas they were planning to do? I don't think they were personally.

There is also the consideration that some areas where BT didn't have plans they have actually now done and so those have had to be removed from BDUK as they can no longer receive subsidy - swings and roundabouts?

My reading of BDUK is that so councils can add/remove to the intervention area over life of project, but of course this can create issues.

Perhaps this fluid nature is why councils are not putting out postcode lists, beyond the conspiracy theories

As for legal obligations, don't recall anything for the commercial areas. The BDUK contracts are of course contracts and will have legally binding clauses to meet.