Contract under magnifying glass
The Government (DSIT) has published contract modification notices for several of Quickline and CityFibre’s state aid funded Project Gigabit broadband roll-outs across several regions – Lincolnshire and East Riding (Lot 23), South Yorkshire (Lot 20), West and parts of North Yorkshire (Lot 31) and Cambridgeshire (Lot 5). The tweaks change both the level of committed public funding and premises target.
The reality is that such contracts are not static and their scope, as well as committed levels of public funding, can change over time for a number of different reasons (this is instructed by regular ‘Open Market Reviews’ of the UK deployment plans by network operators). For example, commercial operators may expand or reduce their roll-out plans in the same region, which can reduce or grow the scope for public investment within those same contracted areas.
NOTE: Project Gigabit aims to help extend 1Gbps capable (download) broadband networks to reach “nationwide” UK coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 (here) – the UK is currently at about the 86% coverage mark today (here).
The contracted operator could also find the deployment more expensive or even cheaper than previously envisaged, such as due to changes in build costs and interest rates / inflation, as well as any unexpected obstacles to street works or greater efficiencies of build than planned or expected. Rising build costs and high interest rates are a known bugbear for the industry.
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Suffice to say, there can be various reasons why the contracted scope of the build and level of allocated public funding may change over time. But officially the latest contract modifications only list the following highly generic reasons, without giving any real specifics.
Reasons for modification
Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire.
Description of the economic or technical reasons and the inconvenience or duplication of cost preventing a change of contractor:
Additional scope added to the contract in accordance with the UK subsidy control regime.
Otherwise, we’ve summarised the main before and after changes below (click the links to see the original news announcements for each).
Project Gigabit Contract Modifications (17th March 2025)
Lincolnshire and East Riding (Lot 23) – Quickline
Following the modification, the awarded contract value has increased by £3,758,636 to £122,736,636 from the original value of £118,978,000. The awarded premises have increased by 4,003 to a total of 75,985 from the original 71,982.
South Yorkshire (Lot 20) – Quickline
Following the modification, the awarded contract value has decreased by £2,392,000 to £42,008,000 from the original value of £44,400,000. The awarded premises have increased(rescoped) by 1,013 and decreased(descoped) by 8,225 to a total of 13,285 from the original 20,497.
West and parts of North Yorkshire (Lot 31) – Quickline
Following the modification, the awarded contract value has increased by £2,582,220 to £62,275,000 from the original value of £59,692,780. The awarded premises have increased by 2,741 to a total of 26,310 from the original 23,569.
Cambridgeshire (Lot 5) – CityFibre
Following the modification, the awarded contract value has increased by £4,830,110 to £73,466,901 from the original value of £68,636,791. The awarded premises have increased by 2,685 to a total of 47,154 from the original 44,469.
One thing to be aware of is that changes like this can sometime also impact the expected completion date of each contract, although only a few of the awarded Project Gigabit contracts have actually announced a firm public completion date (this does make it harder to judge their progress).