Members will be joined by Michael Maltby, CEO of Jurassic Fibre, for a presentation followed by a brief Question & Answer session.
Minutes:
The meeting was joined by Michael Maltby, Chief Executive of Jurassic Fibre who gave a short presentation followed by a question and answer session.
Michael Maltby introduced himself as a resident of Sidmouth who had founded Jurassic Fibre in response to the position regarding the roll out of high speed broadband in the UK which he considered to be currently unfit for purpose, and based upon his experience of better provision overseas. Jurassic Fibre was a large scale project designed to be delivered across the South West, applying state of the art techniques to the development of fibre optic broadband.
It is planned to have a commercial launch in February 2020, when a live network will have been set up which should, over time, ultimately reach approximately 350,000 premises, including coverage of much of East Devon and parts of the M5 corridor. Phase 1 currently underway encompasses about 12,000 premises to the east of Exeter and on the western side of East Devon. Mr Maltby said that the impact of Gigaclear projects was unclear and he understood Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS) were going to undertake an open market review.
He concluded by saying that about 80% of the premises in East Devon could be served by the Jurassic Fibre network by 2023, so it raised the issue of how this would help the Council and what the Council’s approach would be to putting fibre into their own offices or housing stock, particularly if tenants requested it.
He stated that increased connectivity would assist in service delivery and local businesses would benefit, as part of a broader economic focus.
The Chairman thanked Michael Maltby for his presentation and invited comments or questions from Committee members.
Discussion included the following;
· Problems with Gigaclear and CDS had been raised previously at Scrutiny Committee with concerns about the essential requirement for decent rural broadband. Concerns remained after hearing from Jurassic Fibre that the rural hinterland would still be left isolated.
Mr Maltby responded by saying that there were connectivity problems all across East Devon, in towns as well as rural areas. They had been working with farmers to put wayleaves across their land, but the costs of extending the network to more dispersed areas were prohibitive to the extent that it was unlikely that many remote areas would be reached, unless there was government subsidy.
· Dealing with a private company was very different to dealing within the public sector procurement processes.
Q 1 – How many of the 350,000 premises would relate to untried or new customers as opposed to those picked up from competitor companies?
Q 2 – Wayleave permissions were an enormous strain on Gigaclear and responsible for many of their delays and problems. Will the same issue affect Jurassic Fibre?
Mr Maltby responded by saying that the Jurassic Fibre approach was to roll out fibre to the premise which was not going to be available in communities in East Devon, and that in relation to the wayleaves issue, they were trying to negotiate with farmers so that they are able to be part of the project rather than simply receiving a request to dig on their land.
· Q 3 - What about packaging of other services for the end user, such as TVs, telephones or other devices?
Mr Maltby said that Jurassic Fibre regarded themselves as digital plumbers, putting in a decent connection whilst the rest of the package for end users can be offered by the likes of Netflix with whom they do not want to compete.
· Q 4 - How much would it cost to install?
Surveys had suggested that a standard installation would be expected in around 80% of the premises. In relation to Council housing stock the Council would not have to pay if individual tenants took up the service. Costs were outlined during the presentation, but would be charged at a fair rate to customers, with an infrastructure related return expected.
· Q 5 - How would the connectivity to the Council housing stock be delivered?
A tenant may want to connect to the Jurassic Fibre network but the Council would need to agree that this could be done. Permissions could be given on a street by street or estate basis.
· Q 6 - What is the proposition to the Council?
There is no detailed proposition yet. This needs to be the subject of further discussion to define the Council’s ambitions in relation to digital infrastructure.
· Businesses need fibre to continue to be competitive and the roll out of a further fibre network should be welcomed to encourage progress and further development.