Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) unit has today confirmed that the second part of the previously stalled Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean (Lot 15), which was originally held by FullFibre Ltd until they “mutually agreed to terminate” it in May 2025 (here), has now been taken on by Openreach (BT).
Just to recap. The contract was originally valued at £23.4m (public subsidy) and aimed to extend gigabit-capable broadband connectivity to cover 7,900 premises in hard-to-reach areas (here). But this was sent into limbo after the contracted supplier pulled out just as the build phase was supposed to start.
At the time a spokesperson for BDUK told ISPreview that they were “now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract“. Since then we’ve already seen the West Herefordshire part of LOT 15 being picked up by Openreach in April 2026 (here) and today sees the Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire) side going the same way.