BT’s rivals pull out of Scottish broadband pilot

The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project initiated by the government has the goal of bringing universal broadband access to the UK. Aside from that, it is also gearing to bring in next-generation broadband networks to ninety percent of the country by 2017. The project is well under way, with various providers and operators submitting bids to push the project forward.

However, the process has been rife with complaints, specifically from Geo Networks. The firm had announced that it would be pulling out from BDUK procurements because the scales were allegedly tilted in favor of BT Broadband. Geo chief Chris Smedley also complained about the unreasonable restrictions BT had placed on their ducts and poles, which are also called Physical Infrastructure Access or PIA. “Whilst pricing may have reduced for the current PIA product (still not far enough in our view), the real issue is that it can only be used for providing the final drop from local exchange to a residential broadband consumer’s house.”

He added: “PIA cannot be used for the far more costly task of crossing the long distances in rural areas to get to these remote communities (backhaul), making the idea of being able to build new fibre connections within them faintly ludicrous.”

Fujitsu has also announced that they were pulling out of procurements. Another firm to join the list is Cable & Wireless, who withdrew from a pilot scheme to provide broadband access to the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland.

In a statement, Labour MSP Rhoda Grant expressed her concern over the recent events: “I am deeply concerned to learn that a second bidder, Cable & Wireless, has withdrawn its tender for the Highlands and Islands broadband pilot. This follows Fujitsu backing out last week due to the lack of public money being invested in the project.”

Scotland was granted £68.8 million in funding from the BDUK budget with the goal of providing connections of at least 2Mbps to its users. However, he Scottish cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment Alex Neil said that the cost of deploying next-generation broadband across the Highlands and Islands region would amount to approximately £300 million.

In a statement, Fujitsu had acknowledged that the costs of the project were much too high: “After closely examining all the factors it is clear that the area would require additional investment for the required infrastructure needed to enable superfast broadband to operate.”

It seems that BT Broadband is the only one left standing. A spokesperson from the broadband giant revealed: “We’re still bidding. Highlands and Islands is about as rural as you get. It’s without a doubt one of the most challenging regions to supply because of the geography and the topology. We’ve got a long history of supplying the Highlands and Islands and working with the Highlands and Islands Enterprise.”

Source – ZDNet