If the level of coverage for Virgin Media means that an area/cabinet/exchange fails the EU State Aid rules then it will be outside the scope of the BDUK project.

The commercial roll-out was a we can go where we want to and with a 2/3rds aim lots of urban/semi-urban was going to be missed out. In essence same freedom Virgin Media had with its choices.

As for Government promise of Superfast Broadband for all, I'd love to read that promise, all we have is superfast for 95% by end of 2017 at present.

Am I right in thinking that BT have now annouced all exchanges to be upgraded as part of their commercial rollout? If so, and the BDUK state aid rules mean that Dudley falls outside of that project due to Virgin coverage, I'm guessing that means a 0% chance of getting fibre where I live.

How can the 95% target actually be met, or is it another case of manipulated figures that bear no resemblance to reality (not that I should be surprised if that's the case)?

The commercial roll out announcements ended in I think early last year.
It is all BDUK now - ost of which had their initial announcement mid/last last year.

Those who already have access to a commercial service (eg virgin) are excluded form BDUK funds
State aid is only for those places with no options.

The 95% will be met by focusing the limited BDUK funds to maximize the number of people moving onto SFBB availability.
So rural cabinet with few number of subscribers or a subscriber base a long way from the cabinet are not likely to be done while others are. It will be a simple 'numbers game' the maximum number of people for the least cost to the public purse.

The original commercial announcements seem to have finished, but deployment work is still going on.

However, BT announced an extra £50m for fill-in work in 30+cities. This is commercial, but on top of the original commercial work; I don't think we have seen any announcements about this at all yet.

The BDUK state-aid rules don't work at a town level, or an exchange level. They don't even apply at cabinet or post-code level. They are, in fact, right down at the level of individual properties. Intervention is allowed for properties that don't have access to superfast speeds.

If Virgin don't (and have indicated to the council that they won't) supply your house, then you are in an NGA white area. Your area (which might only be a single house) is eligible for state aid funding.

But that doesn't guarantee it is economic (or sensible) for BT (or whoever wins your bid) to convert your cabinet. They can reach 90% without converting every cabinet, and so tend to choose the most economic ones.

However, the question is really: Does Dudley have a BDUK project?

After a lot of searching, it appears they do. Birmingham dropped out of a "West Midlands" allocation, so there is just a "Black Country" project going on. That project finished the public consultation phase around 3 weeks ago.

According to this BCC consultation, the current status shows 7% of business & residential premises are in NGA white areas, so strictly there is nothing to do in phase 1!

Page 11 has an email address that you could use. It is probably worth asking if there is a way for you to register as a property/postcode that doesn't have access to NGA broadband.

Edit: Interesting to see that the BCC project is focussed on the "95% by 2017" target, not the earlier one. And that it has a budget of £8-10m; the original phase 1 BDUK allocation to the whole of the West Midlands was a mere £600k, and Birmingham decided to refuse their £120k share of it.

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Apr-14 16:55:55)

Aside from how BT decides to spend the £50m announced a while ago for infill and that some commercial cabinets have been pushed beyond Spring 2014 now.

Thanks for finding that document. Great work!

They certainly didn't do much to publicise the consultation process within the Black Country. The maps in the document show that Sandwell, in particular, is a bit of a desert in terms of NGA coverage. I'll certainly have a go at emailing them even though the consultation deadline has passed. I wonder how long it takes to get these sorts of projects into motion.

Probably sign a contract in Autumn, start delivery Spring 2015