Superfast Broadband State Aid Consultation

Next phase of consultation for public, businesses and telecommunications providers to comment on proposed areas that will not be have Next Generation Access broadband speeds of at least 30Mbps.

22 August 2016

To further extend coverage of Superfast Broadband across West Yorkshire and the City of York.

The project

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority Project is aiming to extend the availability of Superfast Broadband across West Yorkshire (comprising Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield), and the City of York.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority conducted its most recent public consultation between 8 December 2014 and 8 January 2015 as a precursor to the selection of British Telecommunications (BT) on 25 June 2015 for its Phase 2 project under the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.

The contracts with BT included provisions to ensure that the full amount of the public funding is deployed, and that in the event that take-up of superfast broadband services exceeds forecasts in the contracts, then the amount of public subsidy required would subsequently be reduced to reflect this. Any funds released are then available to be reinvested into further coverage of Superfast Broadband under the terms of the contracts.

In August 2015, BT announced that take-up across the UK was likely to exceed the forecast level of 20%. To date, BT has made available up to �129m across the UK to meet the contractual obligations outlined above.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority has received an initial allocation of �2.432m and intends to reinvest this in further coverage as part of the current contracts.

European Regional Development Fund logoEuropean Regional Development Fund

The project received �7.3m of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. ERDF and ESF Branding and Publicity Requirements ESIF-GN-1-005, Version 6 Date published 1 November 2016.

Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

The consultation

The purpose of this public consultation is to confirm the areas which do not have Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband infrastructure delivering at least 30Mbps, or where there are no plans to provide such infrastructure over the next three years. These are described as �white NGA areas� (see maps below).

The consultation invites all interested stakeholders - the public, businesses and telecommunications providers - to comment on the proposed white NGA areas before further coverage is committed.

Final proposals will then be submitted for the NGA white area, taking account of the outcome of the public consultation, to BDUK�s National Competence Centre for clearance.

NGA mapping

Timescales

This State Aid public consultation will be open and run for one calendar month from Monday 22 August until Thursday 22 September 2016.

Once the State aid public consultation is complete and the white NGA areas have been finalised by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, a change will be agreed by the local body and BT to deliver the extended Superfast Broadband coverage.

Responding to the consultation

When responding please provide:

  • Your organisation�s name
  • Your organisation�s address
  • Your name
  • Position
  • Contact telephone number
  • Email address


We also request confirmation from an authorised signatory that the information provided is suitably accurate and up-to-date. Please send your response to arrive no later than 5pm on 22 September 2016.

  • Or by post:
    For the attention of John Bullivent
    Superfast West Yorkshire & York Public Consultation Response
    Thoresby House Level 2
    2 Rossington Street
    Leeds LS2 8HD

Please note: Any information you provide in your response will be treated as commercially confidential to your organisation. However, it may be necessary to share some or all of your response with our professional advisors and/or DCMS/BDUK, Ofcom, the National Competence Centre, and the European Commission, in the course of seeking State Aid approval. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority is also subject to certain legal obligations to disclose information in certain other limited circumstances.

It should also be noted that it is a State Aid requirement to utilise the information provided in response to this consultation to refine our State Aid maps to define White/Grey/Black areas for NGA and Basic Broadband. However, the published maps will show the aggregated White/Grey/Black NGA areas, not the data provided on a per-operator basis.

If you have any questions about this State Aid public consultation process, please contact the Superfast West Yorkshire and York Team at sfwy@leeds.gov.uk

Information requested from telecommunications providers

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority is requesting information on, and supporting evidence for, any current broadband infrastructure or planned investment (within the next 3 years) in broadband infrastructure in West Yorkshire (comprising Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield) and the city of York where these may not already be included within the proposed NGA Intervention Area.

For the avoidance of doubt, if you are content with our proposed State Aid Intervention Areas, no further response is required.

For any current or planned coverage not included within the proposed State Aid Intervention Areas shown on the maps (see below), the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is requesting information on the premises covered (or planned to be covered) by your broadband infrastructure investment. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority is asking for information on coverage of NGA Broadband coverage. By �covered� (or �passed�) the West Yorkshire Combined Authority means that fixed network infrastructure is or will be available to the premises, potentially subject to a final drop connection, or that the premises are able to receive a suitable quality radio signal over the air interface (in the case of wireless or satellite coverage), potentially subject to the installation of a suitable antenna. Where an operator is responding with current or planned coverage for NGA, it must respond to confirm those premises that it is able to provide a broadband service with an access line speed (or equivalent) of at least 30Mbps.

Any information provided in response to this State Aid public consultation should include, but need not be limited to:

  • Detailed maps for NGA Broadband showing the existing coverage, and separately maps detailing the planned investment in NGA Broadband for at least the next 3 years.
  • Details of the actual premises covered or passed (within postcodes at 7-digit postcode level, and confirmation that fixed network infrastructure is available to the premises, potentially subject to a final drop connection, or that the premises are able to receive a suitable quality radio signal over the air interface (in the case of wireless or satellite coverage), potentially subject to the installation of a suitable antenna.
    A detailed description of the technology solution(s) deployed (or to be deployed) in your broadband infrastructure, and where these claim to be NGA, demonstrate how they meet the minimum standards as set out in the BDUK NGA Technology Guidelines .
  • A description of the services/products currently offered, and separately those services/products to be offered within the next 3 years.
  • Installation, annual/monthly subscription, and additional volume or per-service tariffs for those services/products (identifying whether such tariffs are inclusive or exclusive of VAT).
  • Upload and download speeds typically experienced by end-users, and how these may vary by factors such as distance, increased take-up or demand, contention, etc.
  • Appropriate indicators of the quality of services (e.g. contention ratios, bandwidth allocation per user, etc), including any characteristics (e.g. latency, jitter) that are required to support advanced services such as video conferencing or HD video streaming.
  • Evidence to substantiate actual or planned coverage claims, including business cases and evidence of available funding to enable plans to be fulfilled.
  • Details and planned timing of roll-out of any future investments, including further investments required to cope with future increases in take-up and demand.

Please supplement the required information above with any supporting evidence as you consider appropriate (e.g. links to public websites).

Annex A

List of white postcodes (Excel spreadsheet)

NGA map (click for larger version)

Broadband NGA mapping small�


For further info:
Superfast Broadband West Yorkshire website