Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/03/14/bt_wins_lincolnshire_bduk_funds/

BT pockets more gov broadband millions. This time: Lincolnshire

Another fibre job that won't be completed until 2016

By Kelly Fiveash

Posted in Networks, 14th March 2013 10:25 GMT

BT has inked a deal to roll out fibre broadband in Lincolnshire, scooping up yet more cash from the British government.

The telecoms giant will deploy mainly fibre-to-the-cabinet technology for the rural county's council, and the work won't be completed until 2016. This follows on from other council jobs BT has won in what has become a bit of a one-horse race for Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds - the £530m pot of taxpayers' cash set aside to pay for wider broadband installations across Blighty.

The UK Ministry of Fun had set an ambitious and now increasingly unlikely target of bringing super-fast broadband to 90 per cent of Blighty homes and businesses by 2015. BT - with every contract win - keeps saying that such infrastructure projects need three years to complete.

In recent months, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has eased off from declaring 2015 as the end date for such a big rollout.

Broadband minister Ed Vaizey simply used words such as "fantastic" and "great" in BT's press release about the Lincolnshire deal.

Vaizey has long trumpeted his department's desire for the UK to have the "best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015" - but achieving such a goal is based only on the British government's own definition of what the word "best" actually means.

As for Lincolnshire, this contract is worth £48m. Central government will cough up £14.3m from the BDUK coffers, £11.2m will come from the county council, £4m from district authorities and £18.8m courtesy of BT. ®