Open Market Review Request for information on broadband infrastructure provision in Scotland 27 October 2014 OPEN MARKET REVIEW – SCOTLAND REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 1. INTRODUCTION The Scottish Government has set ambitious policy objectives aimed at delivering world class digital infrastructure across Scotland by 2020. As a key first step, the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and our local authority partners are investing over £280 million in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme that is extending fibre broadband infrastructure into non-commercial areas. Alongside commercial rollout, the DSSB programme will extend access to fibre broadband to 85% of premises by 2015/16 and at least 95% of premises across Scotland by 2017/18. The DSSB programme is being delivered through two regional projects – one covering the Highlands and Islands; the other covering the rest of Scotland. Both projects were procured in 2013 – by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Government respectively – with BT the successful bidder for both. The Scottish Government has also established Community Broadband Scotland (CBS), a £7.5 million initiative which is supporting the development of community-led schemes in those areas least likely to have a superfast solution delivered by the DSSB programme. CBS is working with a range of communities and assisting them as they move towards formal procurement of broadband solutions. Scotland has been allocated £20.99 million by the UK Government as part of phase 2 of its Superfast Britain programme. This will be matched by the Scottish Government and local partners. The overall aim of the programme is to reach 95% superfast broadband coverage at UK level. In Scotland, we intend to go beyond this. This Open Market Review (OMR) is intended to capture an updated view of suppliers’ commercial coverage ahead of the potential deployment of additional public funds to support broadband rollout across Scotland (by Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, local authorities, Community Broadband Scotland or a combination thereof). This exercise will be followed by a public consultation on the areas where public funds can legally be deployed (the ‘Intervention Area (s)’), as defined under the European Commission’s state aid rules. 2. GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE The OMR covers all of Scotland, comprising both existing Intervention Areas – Highlands and Islands; and the rest of Scotland. The Overall Geographic Area (OGA) for Scotland consists of all the postcodes and premises shown below in Figure 1. Figure 1 – OMR, Geographical Scope A complete list of live postcodes comprising the geographical scope of the OMR is provided as a template for OMR responses. This reference dataset has been extracted from the National Records of Scotland Postcode Index, 2014 release 2 (published August 2014). For reference, this dataset also provides counts of residential, non-residential and total premises per postcode to enable supplier testing against reference data prior to OMR responses. 3. PROGRESS TO DATE Key milestones are as follows: Scotland’s Digital Future: Infrastructure Action Plan published1 Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband – Highlands and Islands contract awarded to BT Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband – Rest of Scotland contract awarded to BT DSSB project delivery: planning and deployment UK Government funding allocation (£20.99 million) to Scotland from Phase 2 announced Scottish match funding confirmed Open Market Review – Scotland State Aid consultation – Scotland Phase 2 public funding deployed 4. January 2012 March 2013 July 2013 2013 – 2017 February 2014 June 2014 27 October – 19 December 2014 January 2015 During 2015 PURPOSE OF THIS OMR This OMR is intended as a precursor to a formal public consultation document. The OMR, in contrast to that public consultation document, is not a specific requirement under the European Commission's Broadband Guidelines2 or the National Broadband Scheme3. However, we consider that early market engagement at this stage is an essential and extremely important part of our market research. The results of the OMR will assist us with understanding the broadband infrastructure (basic broadband and Next Generation Access (NGA)) already in place and where there are plans for investment in such infrastructure in the coming three years. This will represent a significant step in the design of the intervention area. 1 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/01/1487/0 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2013:025:0001:0026:EN:PDF 3 http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/cases/243212/243212_1387832_172_1.pdf 2 5. YOUR RESPONSE REQUIRED We are inviting responses to this OMR from all recognised broadband infrastructure and internet providers in our area. In addition, we are publishing the OMR document on the Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise websites. This document is accompanied by a data file/response template (.csv), which is available on request. We require responses by Friday 19 December 2014 to the questions set out in Annex A. When responding, we would be grateful if you could confirm your organisation's name and address, as well as the name, position and contact details of the person responding on behalf of the organisation. Please submit responses to: [email protected] All responses must be submitted on the response template and be received by the Scottish Government no later than 17:00 on Friday 19 December 2014. Please note that the data you provide in your response will be treated as commercially confidential, although it may be necessary to share some/all of your response data with our professional advisors and/or DCMS/BDUK, Ofcom, BIS State Aid Branch and the European Commission in the course of seeking State aid approval for local broadband projects. It should also be noted that it is a State aid requirement to utilise this information to produce State aid maps to define white, grey and black areas for basic and NGA broadband. These maps will be published as part of the Public Consultation process and will be utilised to define the intervention area. However, please note that these published maps will be assimilated utilising data from all relevant operators and will not be directly attributed to a single source. If you have any questions about any of the above, please contact Robbie McGhee ([email protected]), Broadband Policy Team, Scottish Government. ANNEX A 1. Please provide details and supporting evidence of any current or planned investment in broadband infrastructure (basic broadband and NGA broadband) in Scotland. In the case of planned investment, we are particularly interested in plans for the coming three years (by date). However, any plans for years beyond that would also be of interest. If your broadband investment is planned, we will require the submission of a business plan, along with a detailed timeline and deployment plan as well as proof that the plan is adequately financed. Responses should be provided using the accompanying response template (.csv format) and should indicate the exact number of business and residential premises passed per postcode. Any information provided should include, but need not be limited to: Detailed maps for basic broadband and NGA broadband showing the existing coverage and separately maps detailing the planned investment in the basic broadband and NGA infrastructure networks for at least the next three years; Exact detail of premises passed or covered, i.e. postcodes including information on the number of premises passed (in the case of a fixed network) or covered and able to receive services (in the case of a wireless/satellite network); Details of the technology and where these claim to be NGA, demonstrate how they meet the minimum standards as set out in the BDUK Technology Guidelines4. Description of the services/products currently offered and separately those to be offered within the next 3 years; Installation and rental tariffs for those services/products clearly identifying whether they are inclusive or exclusive of VAT; Upload and download speeds typically experienced by end users; Appropriate indicators of quality of the service e.g. contention ratio or bandwidth allocation per end user; Evidence to substantiate actual or planned coverage claims including business cases and evidence of available funding to enable plans to be fulfilled; 4 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236341/NGA_Technol ogy_Guidelines_300813.pdf Details and timing of rollout for future investment; and Confirmation from an authorised signatory that all information provided is of suitable accuracy. Please supplement with supporting evidence as you consider appropriate e.g. public websites. BDUK / April 2014 © Crown copyright 2014 You may re-use this information (excluding logos and images) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ or e-mail: [email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. ISBN: 978-1-78412-899-9 (web only) Published by the Scottish Government, October 2014 The Scottish Government St Andrew’s House Edinburgh EH1 3DG Produced for the Scottish Government by APS Group Scotland, 21 Tennant Street, Edinburgh EH6 5NA DPPAS39277 (10/14) w w w . s c o t l a n d . g o v . u k
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