Consultation outcome

Suffolk (Lot 2) Public Review Closure Notice

Updated 26 March 2024

New procurement to extend coverage of gigabit-capable broadband across the Suffolk region.

1. Introduction

The Government’s ambition is to deliver nationwide gigabit-capable broadband as soon as possible. We recognise that there is a need for government intervention in the parts of the country that are not commercially viable; this is why the Government has committed £5bn for the hardest to reach parts of the country, ensuring that all areas of the UK can benefit. This will be spent through a package of coordinated and mutually supportive interventions, collectively known as Project Gigabit.

We wish to work collaboratively with industry to maximise efficiency, minimise market distortion and achieve our objectives within a tight time frame. To do this, we first identified the areas that were not commercially viable through the Open Market Review (OMR) and Public Review (PR) stages. This allowed us to understand from suppliers if there were any current or planned investments over the next three years in broadband infrastructure (Next Generation Access broadband, ultrafast and gigabit-capable) in the identified geography. For this Lot, the identified geography lay within the Suffolk region.

The box below shows the order of processes, from OMR to procurement.

1. OMR

2. Pubic Review

3. Determine intervention areas for procurement

4. Procurement

Through these stages, BDUK classifies premises as eligible/ineligible for subsidy on the basis of their existing or planned qualifying broadband infrastructure. Details on the classification system of White, Grey, Black and Under Review and methodology can be found in section 3.2 BDUK Classifications and methodology for this PR.

Premises categorised as White by BDUK during Open Market Reviews and Public Reviews (ie eligible for subsidy) are grouped into Intervention Areas (IAs). IAs list those premises that will be targeted for subsidy in any potential procurement to follow this PR. To be clear, not all eligible premises may have been targeted for subsidy. The finalised IA will be issued to the market at the Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage of procurement so that suppliers can bid for subsidy to support delivery to this Intervention Area. Further information on the OMR/PR process and how we reach our conclusions can be found in the Subsidy Control Guidance document.

2. Outcome of the preceding Open Market Review

Preceding the Public Review stage, BDUK conducted an OMR for Suffolk (Lot 2) from 15 March 2021 - 22 April 2021. This OMR requested information from suppliers regarding current and planned broadband infrastructure within the next three years.

All meaningful responses to the OMR were considered and where necessary utilised to determine eligible premises. Suppliers who responded to the OMR were informed of the classifications applied to the existing and planned infrastructure relevant to their submission.

The key findings of the OMR were presented via a postcode-level map showing eligible premises identified through the OMR, along with a list of eligible postcodes which were consulted upon during the subsequent PR.

3. Outcome of the Public Review

3.1 Background

The PR for Suffolk (Lot 2) ran from 19 August 2021 to 20 September 2021. During the PR BDUK invited stakeholders (including broadband infrastructure operators, internet service providers, the public, and businesses) to provide feedback regarding which areas were made up of eligible premises.

The PR stage aimed to validate the outcome of the preceding OMR to ensure that it correctly represented the information provided by suppliers in the course of the OMR.

Suppliers who missed contributing to the preceding OMR, had no definitive plans and / or evidence base on which to substantiate claims at that earlier stage, or had subsequently updated their plans had a final opportunity to notify BDUK before final determinations were made on premises eligibility. All meaningful responses were carefully considered and where necessary utilised to determine eligible premises. BDUK also sought feedback from Suffolk Council. The finalised postcode-level map showing eligible premises is shown in Annex A of this Public Review Closure Note. See postcode-level map.

See list of postcodes showing White, Grey, Black and Under Review postcodes. A list of eligible premises is available to suppliers upon request.

3.2 BDUK Classifications and methodology for this PR

During the PR, BDUK categorised premises as gigabit White, Grey, Black or Under Review.

Subsidy control classifications are set out below:

• White - indicates premises with no gigabit network infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within 3 years^{[footnote 1]}

• Grey - indicates premises where a single qualifying gigabit infrastructure from a single supplier is available or is to be deployed within the coming 3 years^{[footnote 1]}

• Black - indicates premises with two or more qualifying gigabit infrastructures from different suppliers being available, or will be deployed within the coming 3 years^{[footnote 1]}

• Under Review - indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidence

BDUK will only provide subsidy to target premises that have been designated as White. Premises which have been designated as Under Review may be included within the Deferred Scope of a procurement. Where this is the case, a further review will be undertaken to confirm whether they are Grey or White before they are released for build.

In accordance with the OMR/PR processes, supplier data submitted during the OMR and PR has been mapped using a methodology that protects commercially sensitive supplier data. To reflect this sensitivity, we will only release White and Under Review UPRNs.

3.3 Summary of PR findings - premises eligibility

For presentational purposes only, postcode-level and UPRN level mapping has been used to present maps showing eligible premises. (NB we will only subsidise build to premises which have been designated as White - postcodes are not used to determine intervention areas for subsidy). For this purpose, postcodes have been classified as follows:

1. A postcode is White if any White premises are present
2. A postcode is Under Review if any Under Review premises are present
3. A postcode is Black if all premises in the postcode are classified Black
4. A postcode is Grey if all premises are Grey or there is a mixture of Grey and Black premises

A postcode-level map summarising these premise classifications is provided in Annex A. Suppliers - please note that these maps do not show which UPRNs have been determined as White and Under Review.

The outcome of the Public Review is summarised in terms of White, Grey, Black and Under Review postcodes and premises below:

Postcode Classification	Number of Postcodes	Number of Gigabit Black Premises	Number of Gigabit Grey Premises	Number of Gigabit Under Review Premises	Number of Gigabit White Premises
White	10,093	1,639	17,108	37,281	95,688
Under Review	9,421	3,083	24,557	132,883	0
Grey	3,914	6,192	52,993	0	0
Black	669	13,505	0	0	0
Total	24,097	24,419	94,658	170,164	95,688

3.4 Forthcoming procurement

During the PR stage for Suffolk Lot 2, BDUK sought responses from the market and other stakeholders to validate the Subsidy Control map (showing Gigabit White, Grey, Black and Under Review determinations). BDUK also carried out market engagement to seek feedback from suppliers about the design of the proposed Intervention Area and Lot, the Procurement Type (A - Local Supplier, B - Regional Supplier or C - Cross-regional Supplier) and also the capacity of the market to bid for a potential procurement.

The total public funding investment has been based on the final number of premises requiring subsidy. BDUK will confirm a budget drawn from public funding for this area within the forthcoming tender documentation. Details of any restrictions on the use of public subsidy will be explained within the tender documentation.

Indicative funding allocated to this Lot is as follows:

• Approximately 87,234 remote premises split between initial scope (71%) and deferred scope (29%), distributed evenly throughout the county - £100,453,000 (rounded to the nearest thousand)

The Regional Supplier contracts include two categories of intervention: Initial Scope, where the Regional Supplier should build as quickly as possible; and Deferred Scope where we wait and see whether commercial plans or voucher projects translate to delivery, but could then build if not.

For premises that are included in the Deferred Scope of contracts, we will seek a price from the Regional Supplier, but will not authorise build unless and until they are re-classified as White. We will always either descope Under Review premises or defer build to them and we will always descope Grey or Black premises.

The procurement type selected for Suffolk Lot 2, following engagement with market and other stakeholders, is anticipated to be a Procurement Type B - a Regional Supplier Contract. A premise-level map detailing the proposed Intervention Area can be found in Annex B.

Suffolk, Lot 2 forthcoming procurement will be carried out in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR2015). BDUK procurement approaches are designed to address the scale of the individual procurements. Suffolk Lot 2’s procurement will be conducted in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

The Authority, BDUK, reserves the right to amend or withdraw the procedure for the competitive sourcing process at any time. Any amendments will be done in line with the Procurement Regulations.

Suppliers acknowledge and accept that by issuing this document (PR Closure Notice) BDUK shall not be bound to progress or conclude any related procurement activity.

Under no circumstances shall the Authority incur any liability in respect of the information contained in this supporting documentation.

3.5 Timescales

The following table summarises the indicative timescales for the procurement:

Activity	Date
Procurement start date (SQ launch)	April 2022
Estimated contract award date	January - March 2023

See further information on Project Gigabit procurement timelines.

3.6 Summary of PR findings

• There are 95,688 White premises (out of 384,929) where the market does not intend to build, indicating there is a strong commitment from active suppliers in Suffolk Lot 2 to reach a large proportion of premises in the County
• The Intervention Area was designed to address areas outside of where we expect the commercial sector to build to, prioritising footprints where there is an appetite for BDUK to go further, faster
• We contacted all known national and local suppliers to ask them to respond to the OMR and PR. This included working closely with Suffolk County Council to ensure active and prospective suppliers were aware of the OMR and PR and could feed in their responses
• The Regional Type B procurement that was anticipated for Suffolk through the Project Gigabit winter update, following the review of OMR/PR responses and subsequent market and local engagement it was determined to progress with this approach

4. Conclusion

A key output for the OMR/PR for Suffolk (Lot 2) is the maps showing premises that are eligible for subsidy.

Annex A sets this out in a map at postcode level. This provides an indication of areas where premises are eligible for subsidy. A full list of White and Under Review UPRNs is available on request to Suppliers via [email protected].

From these maps, BDUK developed an Intervention Area that was proposed to the market during the pre-procurement market engagement phase.

Annex B sets out the proposed Intervention Area at a UPRN level. A full list of eligible UPRNs is available on request to Suppliers via [email protected].

5. Annex A – Map indicating locations of eligible premises

The below postcode level map indicates areas where those premises eligible for subsidy are located ie White areas. These eligible premises may be included within the Intervention Area. Black, Grey and Blue (Under Review) areas indicate where those premises ineligible for Subsidy are located.

6. Annex B – Map of Proposed Intervention Area

Please see section 3 above for information on BDUK’s findings, contextualising how eligible premises were included in the proposed Intervention Area.

The above premise level map indicates eligible premises that form the proposed Intervention Area. This map is accompanied by a list of UPRNs that fall within the IA, clearly demarcating which premises are within the ‘Initial’ or ‘Deferred Scope’ which suppliers can request via Atamis. If you are unable to access Atamis, please contact the Supplier Mailbox [email protected].

Those premises which are highlighted in blue are referred to as ‘Type B - Initial Scope’.

Those premises which are highlighted in red are referred to as ‘Type - Deferred Scope’.

7. Annex C – Post PR Closure Notice Updates - February 2024

Everything prior to Annex C within this PR Closure Notice reflects the outcomes of the PR conducted in Suffolk Lot 2 from August to September 2021, which was published in April 2022.

As confirmed in section 3.4, the procurement type for Suffolk, following extensive engagement with the market and other stakeholders, was anticipated to be a type B regional supplier contract for Lot 2. Since the publication of the original PR Closure Notice, the type B regional supplier contract has been successfully awarded and a live contract is now in place. This procurement utilised data from the PR conducted in 2021.

BDUK launched the National Rolling Open Market Reviews (NR OMR) in January 2022. BDUK asks suppliers delivering gigabit-capable infrastructure to submit national data returns on a 4-monthly basis (January, May and September) to provide detailed build plans at premises level. The purpose of the NR OMR is to ensure that BDUK has the most up to date information about suppliers’ existing and planned build on a national basis. This supports better strategic planning and prioritisation of Project Gigabit procurement IAs. As a result, this streamlines the previous local OMR process and minimises the risk of BDUK intervening in an area that would disrupt existing commercial plans.

Following the conclusion of the May 2023 NR OMR, we now have an updated view of commercial activity in the Suffolk Lot 2 IA. As such, BDUK has made changes to the IA developed using the Lot 2 PR data, utilising the outputs from the May 2023 NR OMR.

This is to ensure we are targeting the correct premises for subsidy in the contract. Further details on the outcome of the May 2023 NR OMR can be found here.

Details of changes to the Suffolk Lot 2 IA including volumes of premises eligible, IA map, funding allocated and revised timescales for this procurement are detailed below.

Norfolk Lot 7 Type B (original versus revised funding and UPRNs)

Original	Original figure	Revised figure
Funding Allocated	£100,453,000	£102,305,000
Total number of uncommercial premises in IA	79,501	80,508

The changes to the IA include the addition of 74 UPRNs that were not included in the original Lot 2 PR. The additional postcodes can be found here.

See BDUK quarterly updates for more information on procurements BDUK intends to run.

7.1 Map of Updated Intervention Area - Revised Suffolk Lot 2

The below map shows the updated eligible premises that form the revised IA for the Suffolk Lot 2 Type B contract.

Those premises which are highlighted in blue (52,165 premises) are referred to as the ‘Initial Scope’ premises that will be targeted for subsidy.

Those premises which are highlighted in red (148,150 premises) are referred to as the ‘Deferred Scope’ premises, which will not be targeted for subsidy unless they have been determined to be eligible (White) as part of BDUK’s monitoring process.

This map is accompanied by a list of UPRNs that fall within the IA, clearly demarcating which premises are within the ‘Initial’ or ‘Deferred’ Scope which suppliers can request via Atamis. If you are unable to access Atamis, please contact the Supplier Mailbox [email protected].

1. There may be occasions where credible plans extend beyond a 3-year period, in that case, these may be taken into account. ↩ ↩² ↩³