The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has just unexpectedly announced that alternative network provider Freedom Fibre has “mutually agreed to terminate” the £43m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Cheshire (Lot 17), which would have expanded a full fibre (FTTP) network to 15,000 premises in hard to reach areas.
The contract, which was formally announced in May 2024 (here), would have seen Freedom Fibre expand their gigabit broadband network across large areas of rural Cheshire, including several remote villages, such as Kingswood, Allostock, Minshull Vernon and beyond. The building work on this was originally expected to commence during “early 2025“, but that will no longer happen.
However, in a brief statement released by BDUK a few moments ago, a spokesperson for the agency said: “BDUK and Freedom Fibre have mutually agreed to terminate the Project Gigabit contract for Cheshire. BDUK is now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be connected. Freedom Fibre has not received any public funding for this contract.”
At the time of writing we don’t yet know why this has occurred (we’ll be seeking a comment from FF), although the development follows only a few short months after another network operator, Voneus, similarly dropped out of the smaller £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (here). Smaller altnets are currently known to be under a lot of strain from high interest rates, rising build costs and competition.
UPDATE 10:06am
We’ve managed to get a comment from Freedom Fibre.
A Freedom Fibre spokesperson said:
“Stepping away from the Cheshire Gigabit project before the build phase was a difficult decision, made after careful consideration. While we are disappointed that we should not proceed with the project, this decision enables us to focus on delivering high-quality fibre infrastructure in our priority areas. We remain committed to expanding full-fibre connectivity to communities and will continue working closely with our partners to bridge the digital divide.”