Openreach contract

16 March 2022

Dear

Request for Information – ATISN 16064

I wrote to you on 15 February regarding your request for information relating to Openreach/Welsh Government (WG) fibre plans, off the Wolvesnewton exchange in 2022. 

Information requested

1. The criteria by which the WG/Openreach contract has decided upon which properties to connect and which to ignore. 

2. The calculation that shows why your property and immediate neighbours are not included. 

3. The process to appeal the findings if required. 

Our response

1.  It may help if I explain the process determining premises in the project.  Firstly, the Welsh Government carries out an open market review and public review process to determine which premises are not served by commercial deployment and so will remain unserved over the next three years. Such unserved premises are classified as white premises, and are deemed eligible for public funded intervention. The telecommunications market is then invited through a procurement exercise to bid to connect these premises outlining how many and which premises they will connect. Welsh Government evaluates the bids and awards a grant agreement (a type of contract) to the successful bidder.

2.  The Welsh Government does not specify which premises the supplier should include in their bids but, as part of the tender marking process, additional weighting is given to premises that are non-residential; are in a local authority area with a relatively high percentage of white premises; and where the current broadband speed is below 24Mbps.  This is in place to prevent the supplier submitting a bid to cover only the easiest to reach white premises.

3.  There is no appeals process in place, however, as the choice of premises rests with the supplier, Openreach, we suggest that you may wish to contact Openreach to request further information on how they decide which premises to build to and which premises not to build to.

Next steps

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this response.  Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:

Information Rights Unit, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ

or Email: Freedom.ofinformation@gov.wales.  Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.   

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.  However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

Yours sincerely