THE MARCHES & GLOUCESTERSHIRE VIABLE CLUSTERS BROADBAND PROJECT (MGVCBP)

This ITT is named the Marches & Gloucestershire Viable Clusters Broadband Project (MGVCBP).

DEFRA through the Rural Payments Agency have awarded £10.466m to a consortium of Local Authorities lead by Herefordshire Council to deliver the project and support Wholesale Next Generation Access Broadband interventions in the “final 5%” of exclusively rural areas. This funding is from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) programme.

56 significant clusters of Next Generation Access (NGA) white premises have been identified which could offer viable opportunities (given the provision of public subsidy towards the initial capital installation) for private sector suppliers to provide and maintain bespoke NGA capable broadband networks.

In total, the Eligible Area includes 56 Lots and 13,156 NGA white premises which have not been superfast enabled by either commercial endeavours or as a result of public subsidy and are not planned to be enabled in the near future. Candidates will be able to bid for any Lot or selection of Lots up to the maximum number. However, they are required to provide solutions with no inherent interdependency such that if a subsection of those Lots bid for are not awarded to the Candidate, the Authorities can be sure that the proposition is not undermined.

The Project will work alongside a range of existing initiatives and projects being delivered across the Marches and Gloucestershire to increase the availability of Next Generation Access broadband; namely Fastershire, Connecting Shropshire and Superfast Telford. These initiatives are supporting mainstream BDUK funded contracts with BT, Gigaclear and Airband as well as alternative grant funded activity such as the Marches and Gloucestershire Business Broadband Grant Scheme.

Suppliers wishing to be considered for this opportunity are required to complete and return ‘Use of Existing Infrastructure Code of Conduct’ form, by 12:00 noon 2nd April 2018. Failure to do so by this date will render any ultimate Tender non-compliant. Candidates must submit Code of Conduct form for each Lot for which they are applying.