Freedom Fibre is no longer able to complete a contract to roll out gigabit-capable broadband to 12,000 premises in north Shropshire in full, due to changes in the external market, in a new report from the government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) Agency.
Wed, 7/08/2024 - 14:47
Altnets that have received government funding could be failing to make their cables easily available to other operators, despite this being a condition of receiving taxpayers’ money, according to AssetHUB.
The asset reuse specialist claims this is holding back plans to level-up rural and remote communities across the UK and is stopping altnets from winning revenues by selling unused fibre to other companies.
“Close to 100,000km of fibre is being deployed across the UK thanks to the £1.4 billion in Project Gigabit funding from BDUK,” said James Saunby, from industry specialists GreySky Consulting. “It is critical that network builders understand the potential for these networks to be clearly open and able to be used.”
Rob Leenderts, CEO of AssetHUB, added: “For those network builders who have funded their own network buildouts, there is the added opportunity to generate some more revenue by selling space, services and unused fibre to other companies.”
