Award winning telecoms and smart city advisor Intelligens Consulting has announced it has been commissioned by a rural wireless ISP and broadband provider to support their bid to secure funding from the Department of Digital, Culture Media and Sport’s (DCMS) GBP 5 billion Project Gigabit.
Project Gigabit is the government’s national mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband for everyone in the UK.
Intelligens Consulting Director Iqbal Singh Bedi said, “Project Gigabit is the Government’s attempt to bridge the urban / rural digital divide by subsidising operators to provide gigabit capable broadband to the UK’s most rural and hard to reach areas.”
The Government has allocated GBP 5 billion to connect the final 20% of premises that are unlikely to be served through private investment alone.
As the cost of providing broadband to rural areas is significantly higher than in urban areas it justifies government intervention. As a result, the Government is starting gigabit procurements for telecoms providers to compete for subsidies to deliver gigabit capable networks to areas that are considered otherwise commercially unviable.
Government subsidy will be allocated to telecoms operators through a series of competitive procurements in areas where the market would not otherwise be willing to invest.
Bedi also went on to say about the procurement process, “Unlike previous Superfast or R100 procurements where a single entity was awarded the entire contract, Project Gigabit has been designed to ensure smaller local and regional operators can participate thereby devolving competition to a local level.”
Initial procurements have now commenced which will provide learning and input to future phases.
Bedi said, “Our team is supporting a rural fixed wireless broadband provider with its procurement response for Phase 1a. We will be providing technical, financial and economic expertise as well as general bid support.”