Surrey Council Seeks Tenders For Fibre Rollout

The importance of superfast broadband in today’s environment has been underlined by the news that Surrey County Council is prepared to pay to get all its residents online.

The Tory-run Council has worked out that  BT’s national roll out of fibre would not reach 20 percent of the county – particularly those homes and buildings located in rural areas – and has announced it is inviting bids to ensure Surrey has 100 percent superfast broadband coverage by 2013.

Essential Service

It is also seeking a company to provide super-fast broadband for its public-sector organisations (i.e. county, borough and district councils and Surrey Police Authority) so they can work together more effectively.

“Fast and reliable internet access is vital for business and is central to our daily lives,” said Surrey County Council leader Dr Andrew Povey. “Everyone should have access to this essential tool and we are committed to making sure that those in rural areas and other parts of Surrey where service is patchy are not left behind.”

“Poor broadband coverage and slow speeds hold back local businesses and put rural communities at a disadvantage,” he added. “Unless we step in up to 20 percent of Surrey won’t feel the huge benefits of high-speed broadband in the near future.”

The contracts are expected to be finalised by May 2012.

Vexing Roll Out

The issue of a nationwide fibre roll out is proving to be a something of a vexing issue in the UK.

BT is of course spending billions (£2.5bn at the last count) rolling out fibre on a nationwide basis, but this will only reach 60 percent of UK homes and buildings. This is because BT is also a commercial entity with demanding shareholders, and it sometimes cannot justify the installation of fibre into remote rural areas where it would not be economically viable.

The Government has also recently extended its push for rural broadband with the news that it has freed up an extra £49 million from the £530 million pot set aside last year to help push superfast broadband into economically unattractive rural areas.

Some areas, such as Lyddington in Rutland, took matters into their own hands after it raised £37,000 so that Rutland Telecom could install its own cabinet connected to the BT network.

Other communities and villages such as Alston Moor in Cumbria have dug their own trenches in order to ensure their Parish enjoys superfast broadband.

Of course there are other networks besides BT, including Virgin Media, but these tend to located in towns and cities only.

However an interesting development was revealed in April, when network giant Fujitsu announced its own plans to build a £2 billion superfast fibre network, which would bypass BT’s street cabinets and offer high speed connections to five million homes in rural Britain that currently have poor broadband coverage.