Final Third Fess Up Time

A busy week just passed and one of the more insightful and intriguing events attended was the Northern Net meeting in Gateshead last Tuesday.

From a Final Third First perspective, the most interesting speaker was undoubtedly BT’s Simon Roberson who presented the following slide:

BT Confirm Final Third is Outside Planned Investment Envelope

What is clear (and highlighted in yellow above) is that 34%, the Final Third, is now confirmed as being beyond BT’s plans for NGA investment.

This is an important step towards providing the certainty that emerging independent networks, localised initiatives and new entrants into the NGA space require in order to commit their own funds towards delivering the Final Third First

Simon was asked at the event to go that simple step further – please identify the postcode areas where BT will not be investing in NGA.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a ready answer was not forthcoming beyond some vague talk of each local area being assessed on its own merits on a case by case basis.

This issue needs a rapid solution, which in turn may require political input from Messrs Vaisey and Cable to steer OFCOM in the right direction, namely:

OFCOM must instruct BT to publish at the earliest opportunity either the list of postcodes for the 66% of the population where BT will be investing, or the Final Third postcodes where it will not, or preferably both.

That way, alternative non-incumbents First Mile NGA providers like NextGenUs UK CIC will have the opportunity to make derisked private sector investment decisions, safe in the knowledge that for some defined period, 5 years perhaps.

During this period, BT will be barred from selectively stepping into any such previously-identified non-commercial area which would risk chilling investment by damaging the local independent community interest CAPEX proposition before it has had chance to mature and become established.

This methodology will in turn have the added benefit of minimising the scale and nature of any residual Public Sector intervention requirement, very much in line with the Conservatives’ pre-election position re NGA

Also posted on www.fibrestream.co.uk