Wightfibre have branded the Isle of Wight council plan to spend £3 million paying a Mainland company for broadband rollout as flawed and a waste of Taxpayer’s money. The council’s £3m payment will be in addition to £3m contributed by central Government.
The boss of the Cowes-based Wightfibre (previously Wightcable), John Irvine sums it up, “The council doesn’t need to spend the £3m because Wightfibre is going to do it anyway.”
Wightfibre already have fibre in the ground
Wightfibre already have a large amount of fibre installed in the ground around the Island and plans to expand their coverage further. John Irvine told OnTheWight that all he wanted was a level-playing field which wouldn’t be achieved if the council ended up giving BT £6m to put fibre in to Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, Yarmouth and Freshwater.
It’s not that he wants the money he says, “It’s not that Wightfibre should have the £3m, it’s just that the council shouldn’t be spending the £3m.” He puts it down to the council’s use of the Government’s procurement framework, which he says, “is biased in favour of BT and prevents local Island networks like Wightfibre from bidding.”
Other councils around the UK have taken a different – some would say, more active – approach to selecting who would provide their areas broadband, such as Surrey CC which ran a competitive procurement process resulting in three companies being shortlisted as suppliers.
EU Guidelines would be breached
John Irvine also claims that the way the council are implementing it on the Island will be in breach of EU guidelines defined at the most recent inquiry. “There are two points in that document in which the Isle of Wight would fail to meeting those obligations”, he told OnTheWight, specifically, the EU stated that Government money going in to schemes would only be legal under state-aid rules if :-
- No other operator should be offering a service in the area. Wightfibre already does.
- The speed improvement reached when the project is finished should be a ‘Step-change’ – ie, a dramatic improvement in broadband speeds are achieved. John Irvine argues that what is being proposed wouldn’t achieve this. “I can, today – either through our fibre network, or our wireless network – provide 2.5 times BT’s ADSL speeds and up to 8 times. Under the BT scheme this wouldn’t be achieved.”
Wightfibre currently sponsors the business section of OnTheWight. This news reporting is separate of that.
Image: © Tax Brackets
