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BT wins £33m Surrey council superfast broadband deal

Fujitsu declares 'status unchanged' on bids for BDUK cash despite UK.gov ban

BT has won more government funds to unfurl faster fibre-optic broadband cabling - this time in Surrey, after it beat two other rivals to the £33m contract.

Small suppliers Briskona Ltd and ETDE Ltd were the other two firms to bid for the Surrey funds. Fujitsu, however, did not partake in that particular procurement process.

The Japanese tech giant told The Register that, despite a report suggesting that Fujitsu had been blacklisted from bidding for future government contracts, its status for Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, under the Surrey deal with BT, the government will stump up £1.3m from its BDUK pot, while the council will contribute £20m and BT will pump £11.8m into the project.

A BT spokesman explained to El Reg:

The Surrey procurement was underway some time before the BDUK framework was put in place. They will use the umbrella scheme for state aid approval.

As usual, BT plans to upgrade most of the cabling by installing fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) tech. The national telco claimed that the local authority would see a £28m "boost" annually to its economy with the arrival of faster broadband speeds.

FTTC will be able to push downstream connection speeds of up to 80Mbit/s, while its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) cabling will be capable of 330Mbps, BT has said. However, across Blighty, FTTC is to be much more widely deployed by the telecoms giant than its FTTP tech, which often requires many more man hours to roll out.

BT said that its Openreach wing would install the fibre network in Surrey, which it said would provide close to 100 per cent coverage of the county's homes and businesses by 2014.

It added that "consumers and businesses in Surrey will benefit from a highly competitive market, bringing greater choice and affordable prices," because BT's network would be opened to its rivals on a wholesale basis. ®

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