Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Council Business & Partnerships

Forward Plan Ref: 2020/001

Contact: Craig Bower, Digital Infrastructure Programme Director Tel: 07711 411744

Report by Corporate Director – Place & Growth (CA10).

The council's Better Broadband programme has been instrumental in enabling 97.5% of Oxfordshire residential and business premises to have access to superfast broadband.  This has made a significant contribution to the lives of our residents, provided the means for schools to have affordable fast internet access, students to access education content from home, SME's to prosper, and by enabling people to work from home has reduced the volume of traffic on our roads.  The fact that 70% of premises enabled with superfast broadband under the programme have upgraded to use the service means that over 100,000 Oxfordshire residents are using a service that would not have been otherwise available, evidences the demand for good digital connectivity.

The rapid growth in internet traffic means that the main technology deployed (Fibre to the Cabinet) under the programme will be sufficient until the middle of this decade, but beyond that, will require extending fibre from the cabinet directly into premises.  This technology (Fibre to the Premises) is completely future-proof allowing speeds now of 1Gb/s, and fibre can run at much higher speeds just by changing the connected equipment. 

The HMG publication 'Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review' sets out a national ambition for the UK to have 100% coverage of full fibre broadband, and close to 100% coverage of fast mobile coverage. 

The county council Digital Infrastructure Strategy & Delivery Plan sets out how our programme can support delivery of this objective in Oxfordshire, and the role of the MoU between the County Council, Oxford City Council, OxLep, and Oxfordshire District Councils.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve:

(a)                the Digital Infrastructure & Delivery Plan; and

(b)                the associated Memorandum of Understanding forming a Digital Infrastructure Partnership between Oxfordshire Local Authorities and OxLEP

Recommendations approved.

Cabinet considered a plan to support delivery of the Government’s commitment to have 100% coverage of full fibre broadband and close to 100% coverage of fast mobile.

Councillor Ian Corkin introduced the report.  The Council had been to the forefront in the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire (BBO) project which had been successful in providing fibre connectivity across the county but the next stage is to bring fibre from the ‘cabinet’ to premises.  It will provide Giga-byte capability and is essential to 5G mobile coverage.  The Memorandum of Understanding with the other local councils and OxLEP will help facilitate this.

Craig Bower, ICT Project Manager, summarised the report.  Broadband coverage is currently 97% and the current system may suffice for the next 5 to 7 years but the Government has identified that the UK is behind the rest of Europe and North America.  The aim is to bring fibre to every premises and to integrate fibre and mobile systems.  This will be delivered by a combination of commercial investment and public funding.  The Oxfordshire team has the experience of the BBO project behind it and is mobilised to support this next phase.

Councillor Yvonne Constance asked if the model was changing as to how communities remaining without broadband got included, such that suppliers took the lead rather than our programme.  Craig Bower responded to confirm this is increasingly the case, but that the supplier concerned would be able to point residents to the government’s gigabit voucher scheme which often enabled the supplier to extend coverage without the residents or businesses needing to contribute their own funding

The Chairman put the proposal and it was adopted by consensus.

RESOLVED: to approve

(a)         the Digital Infrastructure & Delivery Plan; and

(b)         the associated Memorandum of Understanding forming a Digital Infrastructure Partnership between Oxfordshire Local Authorities and OxLEP.