Statement given by Minister Gordon Lyons MLA, to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 1 March 2022.
Mr Speaker, Members in this House are not shy about declaring their ideas or policies as ‘game changers’, even if few genuinely are. In the case of Project Stratum however, there is no doubt that it is a genuine game changer, not least for those living in rural communities who previously could not access fast or reliable broadband.
Project Stratum the largest publicly funded telecommunications infrastructure project of its kind in Northern Ireland.
I would hope that Members across this House are familiar with the genesis of this scheme, but for those who choose not to acknowledge the origins of the project it came about as a direct result of the DUP / Conservative Confidence and Supply Agreement.
When given the opportunity to do so, DUP colleagues in Westminster used their influence to the benefit of everyone in Northern Ireland by negotiating a broadband intervention scheme that was allocated £165m of public funding, £150m of which was secured under the Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Democratic Unionist Party and the Conservatives, and £15m from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
After a competitive tendering process, Fibrus Networks Ltd was appointed as the contractor to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to over 76,000 premises, using the £165m of public funding, and their own substantial investment of more than £45m.
My Department has now secured additional capital funding of £32 million to bring a further 8,500 premises into Project Stratum again mainly in rural areas of Northern Ireland. This additional funding has been allocated by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, along with additional funding allocations from DAERA and DfE. The additional premises now include premises that were out of scope due to insufficient funding when the contract for Project Stratum was signed, as well as premises that were not considered for inclusion at that time due to anomalies in the Pointer address database, maintained by Land and Property Services.
It is important to remember that 97 per cent of Project Stratum’s intervention area is rural - defined as NISRA Band H rural, meaning small villages and hamlets of less than 1,000 in population, and sparsely populated open countryside.
As a result of this much-needed public intervention, some 85,000 eligible premises will now benefit from Project Stratum, meaning these homes and businesses will have access to gigabit capable broadband, delivering the fastest speeds available to consumers. These services will be provided on an Open Access Network, where I expect to see healthy competition emerge that will provide consumers with more broadband choice.
Broadband is now increasingly viewed as a utility. Indeed, in 2018 the National Infrastructure Commission, the Government’s independent advisor on the UK’s infrastructure needs, stated that digital connectivity was ‘an essential utility, as central to the UK’s society and economy as electricity or water supply’.
The broadband connectivity figures for Northern Ireland paint an improving picture. Based on Ofcom’s latest data, Northern Ireland now has the highest coverage of high-speed broadband services in the UK, with three quarters of homes able to access gigabit capable broadband. This is a result of significant commercial investment from telecommunications providers such as BT-Openreach, Virgin Media, and Fibrus Networks.
Commercial deployment of gigabit capable infrastructure, regarded as the ‘gold standard’ has, however, been focused mainly on our urban centres. The Ofcom figures, based on its latest Connected Nations Report published in December, indicate that for Urban areas, Gigabit-capable broadband is available to 76 per cent of premises - but that figure drops to 36 per cent for rural areas.
The broadband connectivity gap is now closing, thanks in large part to Project Stratum. Though still behind the rest of the UK, 91 per cent of premises here now have access to Superfast broadband services delivering speeds of 30 megabits per second or higher.
Superfast access in rural areas has increased this past year to 70 per cent from 67 per cent, due mainly to the implementation phase of Project Stratum.
To date, Fibrus Networks has completed infrastructure deployment work to over 22,000 premises. All scheduled builds in 7 areas for this quarter are on track to be delivered in line with deployment targets. More than 10,000 fibre poles have been planted, and 2,000 kilometres of fibre cable installed, despite challenges to working conditions faced by the contractor and its sub-contractors during the pandemic. A remarkable achievement when compared to comparable projects in other parts of the UK or Ireland.
The additional 8,500 premises that my Department has now brought into scope of the project includes 2,500 harder-to-reach properties that were not part of the original contract due to the exhaustion of funding, plus a further 6,000 eligible premises in Project Stratum’s State aid-compliant postcode areas, identified through the project team’s ongoing engagement with Land and Property Services colleagues, following the further interrogation of premises data held on the Pointer dataset.
This process was State aid Assured and approved by the BDUK Assurance Board in early December, and approval was granted by the Department of Finance in late December. The portal managed by the contractor for Project Stratum will continue to be updated to reflect these changes, along with build plans and timelines. The public can go online at Hyperfastni for information on continued deployment plans.
The deployment of the new full-fibre network infrastructure to reach all 85,000 premises now within Project Stratum will continue across four extended quarters of network build, with Fibrus Networks expected to complete deployment to some of the most hard-to-reach premises by March 2025.
As a result of our continued public investment in broadband infrastructure, the connectivity gap in Northern Ireland will be all but closed at Superfast levels, with all premises to benefit from new infrastructure under Project Stratum having access to gigabit-capable, fibre to the premises broadband. This means that Northern Ireland will be well placed to benefit from further government initiatives, including Project Gigabit, the UK Government’s plan to bring ‘full fibre’ and ‘gigabit capable’ broadband to every home and business across the UK ‘as soon as possible’.
By building on the momentum that has resulted from both commercial investment and publicly-funded investment in broadband infrastructure, Northern Ireland has the opportunity to once again lead in terms of broadband connectivity, and my Department will continue to engage with DCMS colleagues to ensure that Northern Ireland benefits from investment in gigabit-capable infrastructure, in predominantly rural areas, where it is evident that commercial investment is not viable.
Because regardless of where people live and work in Northern Ireland, I believe they should have access to the best broadband services available. A recent Ipsos Mori report prepared for DCMS, and published in 2021, looked at the benefits of access to improved broadband services through extensive engagement with businesses and local bodies. Benefits highlighted in the report include increased employment, the creation of jobs, increased business turnover, efficiency gains, improved e-learning capabilities and enhanced school admin processes, improved e-health capabilities, including video-enabled consultations, and improvements to subjective wellbeing, particularly among older age groups.
As Project Stratum fulfils its objectives, and as my Department further develops opportunities to improve the broadband connectivity landscape in Northern Ireland wherever it is needed, we can look forward to the benefits that a better connected society will bring to those who work and live in Northern Ireland, thanks to publicly-funded initiatives like Project Stratum.
Gordon Lyons MLA