The Isle of Wight council Cabinet, made up of Independent councillors, has tonight voted to recommend BT as preferred bidder for the Island’s Next Generation Access (NGA) rural broadband project.
IWC Officers, led by Head of service Stuart Love, had made the recommendation.
Cllr Shirley Smart presented the paper.
Amendments to the published papers were proposed (Detail on these later).
After 16 minutes of discussion, five Cabinet members voted in support of the motion and three abstained.
Update 12.Sep.13 Cabinet decisions are recommendations. A vote at the Full Council has to be carried out before it become council policy. As this was a decision to appoint a contractor, it’s seen as an executive matter and can only be taken by the Cabinet
(Live coverage can be read here)
UPDATE 20:11: Inserted that amendments were made before vote.
UPDATE 07:22: Amendments detailed below
Option (a) (i)
(i) Approve BT as the preferred supplier to deliver the Isle of Wight NGA broadband project subject to BDUK and state aid approval and satisfactory agreement on any final matters in respect of the inter-relationship with the highways PFI and complete the capital grant agreement with the government (Department of Culture Media and Sport) to secure £3.09 million match funding
(ii) Specifically the Cabinet requires the project to meet the following criteria:
(a) A joint investment of £6.4 million to deploy superfast broadband across the intervention area on the Island.
(b) A £1.2 million Innovation Fund under the control of the council.
(c) 99% of premises across the Island will have NGA infrastructure deployed by September 2015.
(d) 100% of premises to receive a minimum of 2mpbs
(e) 97% of premises in the intervention area to have an NGA connection (min 30 mbps) post project
(f) 87% of premises in the intervention area to have immediate access to superfast broadband speeds (min 24 mbps) post project
(g) Potential for at least 60 ISP providers in the intervention area
(h) 96% of premises on Isle of Wight to have immediate access to superfast broadband speeds (min 24 mbps) post project
(i) A robust protocol between the council, the supplier (BT Openreach) and Island Roads to ensure highways are not dug up twice (or more) to provide for cost savings.
(j) Planned completion of the main roll out by September 2015
(k) Dedicated BT project lead and support appropriate to the roll out programme.
(l) Continued benefits from BT’s development of new technologies and products as they become available.
