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The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) unit has agreed a contract modification for alternative network ISP Connect Fibre’s (Fibre Assets) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for North East Staffordshire (Lot 19.01) in England, which means it will now reach an additional 739 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas (total of 6,702).
The contract, which was first announced back in November 2023 (here), originally aimed to cover “up to” 6,000 premises and was valued at £16.5m (public subsidy). But after the modification the contract is now valued at £17,588,399 and will go a bit further. “As a result of the scope change, the contract value has increased by £1,028,399 from £16,560,000 to £17,588,399. The change includes 984 additions and 245 removals, resulting in a net increase of 739 premises,” said the modification notice.
According to the latest data from BDUK for September 2026 (here), Connect Fibre has already completed the build to 2,950 of the contracted premises and is continuing to deploy at a gradual but steady pace. This helps to show 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.