Colton Superfast Broadband Why it's important and how we can get it......Mike Postle (mike@mpo1.uk)

No Phase 2 for our area?

It’s just as well that phase 1 looks as if it will deliver for our area because it’s unlikely that phase 2 will. The £5.7m of public phase 2 money can only be spent where there is a ‘market failure’.

 

Recent consultations with potential providers (including with BT) seem to indicate that over the next two to three years, these commercial providers will cover many of the areas left out by phase 1: hence no public money here.  Which leaves about 8,500 premises in Allerdale, Copeland and some remoter parts of the Lake District seemingly eligible for the funding.

 

So just who are these potential commercial providers? They are for the most part relatively small and rely on radio technology: a technology which has recently made great strides to becoming a real rival to the fibre to cabinet solutions currently being progressed.   

 

Whether or not these providers have the capacity to fill the gaps on a commercial basis is the subject of an assessment process being undertaken before the plans for phase 2 are finalised by June.