Northumberland

Northumberland

• Population: 316,300

• Lowest population density in England at 63/SqKm

• Large upland areas and national parks

• Most of the population is clustered around “South East cluster”, A1 and A69

Open Market Review

• The OMR confirmed where Superfast coverage will be in the next three years

• Covers main population centres

Planned BDUK round 1 coverage

• Even after the BDUK round 1 activities a large number of premises not covered

• Drawn from iNorthumberland web site

“Under evaluation”

Solution Options

• Fibre

• Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)

• Satellite

Solution Options

Fibre

• Price per premises passed not viable going fwd

FWA

• Cost effective coverage beyond the fibre zone

Satellite

• Ultimately solutions for premises beyond FWA zone

Financing Options

There is a mix of ways to achieve coverage to those areas not covered by round 1 of BDUK

• More BDUK

• Defra

• Loan Scheme(s)

• Other funding

Financing Options

More BDUK

• Next round £250m

• £650k allocated to Northumberland

• What can you do with £650k?? = less than 0.5% of the population using traditional fibre deployments

• Should an “outside in” model be the preferred route

Financing Options

Defra

• Original UK wide fund circa £20m

• Only one scheme deployed to date – Rothbury

• In Northumberland used to cover national parks, uplands, non urban areas

• Round 2 awarded, options for Rounds 3+

• Around £19m left in the UK pot

• Must be spent by March 2015

• Can it be accessed in time?

Financing Options

Loan Scheme(s)

• Underwritten by local authority

• Offers the opportunity to assist commercial investments/deployments

• Not state aid, done on a purely commercial loan basis

• Useful to assist in cash flow of areas outside BDUK but not in Defra

• An option in the current financial climate??

Financing Options

Other EU funding? • Update this week

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) • Very time intensive Other BDUK • £10m fund Big Lottery Fund • Supporting other bids

Planned BDUK round 1 coverage

• Drawn from iNorthumberland web site

• Even after the BDUK round 1 activities a large number of premises not covered

“Under evaluation”