progress update march 2016

Progress Update

March 2016

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Purpose

The aim of this update is to report on the progress that has been made to bring superfast broadband to

Rotherhithe. It will look at what the major telecoms suppliers have promised to do and their progress.

Southwark Council made an election promise to ‘bring superfast broadband to Rotherhithe’ and have

recently announced a Digital Strategy detailing the council's ambition to be a digital council and a digital

borough. Due to this promise and as BT are the only telecoms infrastructure provider Southwark Council

are engaging with, this report will mainly focus on BT’s and Southwark Council’s progress.

For this update Rotherhithe is used to describe the council wards of Rotherhithe and Surrey Docks.

Summary

Apart from selected updates by Hyperoptic, little tangible progress has been made to bring superfast

broadband to Rotherhithe residents who can only get slow ASDL broadband. The council is currently only

actively engaging with BT. In September 2015 the council announced the upgrades BT was intending to

carry out. This would be in two phases, with the first completed by March 2016 and the second by March

2017. Southwark Council gave recent assurances that around 4000 people would benefit from new faster

connections by the end of March 2016. The single new cabinet that has been installed only provides fibre

broadband to the maple Quays development, which already has fibre from an alternative provider. To

date not a single person in Rotherhithe with slow ASDL-only broadband has benefitted from a new

BT fibre broadband connection.

By 2017 Southwark will be the worse London Borough for superfast broadband and have the highest level

of inadequate broadband speeds.

3 The Current Situation

Southwark currently has 88% coverage of superfast broadband. This is made up of 71% coverage by BT

Openreach, 72% coverage by Virgin and 4% coverage by alternative providers (e.g. Hyperoptic,

SeeTheLight)1. This currently places Southwark as the third worse London borough for superfast

broadband. Southwark is also second to bottom for the amount of broadband connections that are less

than 10Mbps.2

In September 2015 BT published their plans to improve superfast broadband coverage in all London

Boroughs by March 2017. After these proposed improvements, Southwark will become the worse London

borough for superfast broadband. The Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency ward will have

around 77% coverage and the council wards of Rotherhithe and Surrey Docks will be languishing at

around 40%.

In comparison by 2017 the majority of other London Boroughs will have BT superfast connections in

excess of 98% with 14 reaching 100% coverage.3

Southwark Labour made a pledge to ‘bring superfast broadband to Rotherhithe’ during the 2014 council

election campaign. They have restated this as a promise at several council and cabinet meetings since

retaining control of the council. Despite repeated requests, Southwark Council has not been able to

confirm whether they have a plan or strategy beyond meeting with BT. They have not committed any

funding towards achieving their promise.

Southwark’s Digital Strategy

Southwark’s Digital Strategy details Southwark Council's ambitions as a digital council and as a digital

borough.4 The focus of the strategy is on how the council will operate but there are clear implications on

the provision of appropriate digital infrastructure to “ensure that no residents are not(sic) left behind and

unable to access the services and support they need”.5

In Southwark 16% of social tenants do not have home internet access compared to 3% of homeowners.

This is 10% higher than the rest of the UK. 6

One of the initial areas of focus to be achieved by the summer of 2016 is to ‘Attract digital business to

Southwark through lobbying for high speed broadband throughout the whole borough, explore options to

deliver high speed Wi-Fi across the borough and marketing Southwark as the best place to set up for

digital businesses.’ 7

This aspiration is commendable but it is difficult to see how Southwark could possibly be marketed ‘as the

best place to set up for digital businesses’ whilst predicted to have the worst levels of broadband of any

London Borough.8

1 See Figure 1: Superfast Broadband Coverage 2 See Table 1: Superfast Broadband – All Suppliers 3 See Table 2: BT Superfast Broadband – 2015/2017 4 http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?Id=5660 (Digital Strategy) 5 http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?Id=5660 (Summary: Principle 3) 6 http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?Id=5660 (Appendix 3: Equality and Health Analysis) 7 http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?Id=5660 (Digital Strategy p20) 8 See Table 2: BT Superfast Broadband – 2015/2017

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BT / BT Openreach

In January 2014, BT announced plans to invest a further £50 million into their roll-out of fibre optic based

broadband to improve connectivity across more than 30 cities and benefit an additional 400,000 UK

premises9. By the summer of 2015 this has become almost entirely London-centric with BT announcing

fibre expansion for all London boroughs, including Southwark10. Known as the London Expansion Plan

(LEP) BT plans to bring fibre broadband to an additional 360,000 premises in London11. 18000 of these

new lines would be installed in Southwark.

The expansion plan focus is on upgrading street telephone cabinets that weren’t part of the original

commercial plans and rolling out ‘fibre-to-the-remote-node’ (FTTRN) cabinets that serve apartment

blocks.

In 2014 and 2015, during the planning stages of the LEP, BT ran a number of technology and service

trials across London. These mainly focused on newer technology for providing superfast broadband to

multi-dwelling units. In October 2014 BT announced one of these trials would be in Rotherhithe.

In July 2015, working with Southwark Council this trial eventually started, providing superfast broadband

to 16 flats in Gwent Court, Rotherhithe Street. This was a commercial installation looking at how BT

worked with some of its ISP customers. Residents could choose from a range of Internet Service

Providers (ISPs) who use BT infrastructure (SKY, TalkTalk, PlusNet, EE and others) and could choose

speeds of up to 38Mbps or 76Mbps. The cost of the services would be the same as the ISPs would

charge for normal street cabinet fibre. At the end of the technical phase of the trial only 1 resident had

participated. Unfortunately neither BT nor Southwark did any follow up research to find out why the

participation was so low. As the price of fibre broadband is significantly higher than ASDL broadband, cost

is likely to have been a significant factor.

In September 2015 BT shared more specific details of the expansion proposals for Southwark. These

would be a combination of new cabinets, cabinet upgrades and FTTRN installations.

Andrew Campling, BT General Manager for London, stated that the installations would be in two phases

with Phase 1 completed by March 2016 and Phase 2 by March 2017. Of the 18000 new connections

4000 would be in Phase 1 and 14000 in Phase 2.

Phase 1 would see new connections comprising of three FTTRN installations at Courthope House, Pine

House and Ritchie House, the installation of three new telephone / fibre cabinet combinations, two

telephone cabinet upgrades and one fibre cabinet upgrade.

Phase 1 would also include a cabinet upgrade at Bankside and a cabinet upgrade in East Dulwich.

Each new fibre cabinet will only be able provide superfast broadband to a maximum of 288

customers, which is approximately 25% of those connected to the adjacent telephone cabinet. When

quoting new superfast connection figures, BT use the number of lines connected to the telephone cabinet

and not the actual number of superfast lines available. So while BT and Southwark quote “4000 new

connections” in reality only around a 1000 of these will be able to get superfast broadband. The average

uptake of fibre services is around 20-25% which makes BTs installations cost effective but as broadband

is so poor in Rotherhithe the demand is likely to be far higher than what BT is planning to install.

9 http://www.btplc.com/News/#/pressreleases/bt-to-bring-more-fibre-to-cities-1076852 10 http://bit.ly/1RrWJBQ (BT Press Release) 11 http://bit.ly/22CvXBm (BT Press Release)

5 Map of Phase 1 cabinet locations and new coverage areas

Data source: BT Openreach

Despite repeated assurances from Clr Fiona Colley (who is leading on this issue at the council) that BT

were on target to complete Phase 1 by the end of March 201612 13, to date only one of the Phase 1

cabinet upgrades has been installed - the additional fibre cabinet on Surrey Quays Rd, which only

provides fibre to the new flats in the Maple Quays estate, which already has fibre provided by

SeeTheLight.

As of 31st March 2016 not a single person in Rotherhithe who can only access to slow ASDL has

benefitted from a new BT fibre broadband connection.

12 http://bit.ly/22VaLTV (Southwark Council Cabinet Meeting, 9 February 2016) 13 http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/7683-2/

6 The proposed Phase 2 cabinet locations have been identified but coverage areas are not known.

Phase 2 is due to be completed by March 2017.

Map of Phase 2 cabinet locations

Data source: BT Openreach

It's difficult to see how the current Phase 2 installations will make up the further 14000 connections BT

has announced.

It’s disappointing that BT’s plans will not help those who live in the northern part on Rotherhithe who have

the slowest, barely 2Mbps broadband.

It’s also a concern that none of the upgrades publically announced by BT in September 2015 have yet to

appear on the BT Openreach website which details their current and future plans14.

14 http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when

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Any new installations BT proposes will not improve the speed of the current ADSL broadband. If BT do

upgrade, residents will only have the choice of purchasing the more expensive fibre broadband to get

improved speeds. Unlike the majority of the population who can choose between adequate ASDL and

more expensive fibre, only Rotherhithe residents who can afford the higher prices will benefit. This is

concerning as the many people in Rotherhithe will be left with very poor broadband speeds and likely

unable to adequately access the forthcoming online services from Southwark Council.

It recent weeks it has become clear that Southwark Council are unaware that the improvements planned

by BT in Southwark are part of the larger London Expansion Plan program. Southwark have repeatedly

implied that the work BT has planned is in part due or wholly due to their involvement and the

“constructive working relationship [that] has been established with BT Openreach”15. Southwark Council’s

apparent ignorance of the wider context of BT’s plans and coverage can only be detrimental to their

dealings with BT, their promise to Rotherhithe residents and aspirations to be a digital borough.

It's disappointing that Southwark Council still believes BT are making good progress.

Despite assurances from BT and Southwark Council, there have been no new connections to

ADSL-only properties in Rotherhithe and BT are investing the least amount per head of population

in Southwark than any other London Borough16.

15 http://bit.ly/22VaLTV (Southwark Council Cabinet Meeting, 9 February 2016) 16 See Table 2: BT Superfast Broadband – 2015/2017

8 Virgin Media

Virgin media is currently available to 72% of properties in Southwark. The coverage in Rotherhithe is

significantly less at around 17%.

Map of Virgin Media locations

Data source: ThinkBroadband

In February 2015 Virgin Media announces a £3 billion investment in UK’s internet infrastructure.

Rotherhithe residents were encouraged to register interest on Virgin Media’s Cable My Street website.17

The resulting feedback showed that Virgin Media’s expansion plans for Rotherhithe were extremely

limited with only a few properties on the edge of Virgin Media’s current network would be upgraded. To

date these limited upgrades have not happened. We have contacted Virgin Media a number of times but

have failed to get any update on their plans. Southwark Council have not met with Virgin Media to

discuss expansion in Rotherhithe.

17 www.virginmedia.com/cablemystreet

9 Hyperoptic

Hyperoptic provides superfast broadband to apartment blocks. The coverage in Rotherhithe is around 6%.

Map of Hyperoptic enabled buildings

Data source: ThinkBroadband.

Due to the cost of the infrastructure Hyperotic uses, they only install their services to relatively large

apartment blocks or joined residences.

Hyperoptic are continuing to work with landlords and development managers in Rotherhithe to extent their

coverage. In May 2015 they managed to install their services in South Dock Marina.18

18 https://hyperoptic.com/news/residential-boats-go-hyperfast-with-hyperoptic

10 4G Broadband

Many of the mobile providers (EE, Three, Vodaphone) now have data only plans that can be used as an

alternative to fixed-line broadband. Speed can vary hugely depending on location and all plans have

usage caps (between 1 and 50GB).

The downsides are that it is expensive and the ping rates (how fast you get a response after you've sent

out a request) for 4G services are usually slower than fixed line or fibre broadband.

We've have had mixed reports from around Rotherhithe but many are happy with the services.

Relish

Relish (UK Broadband) provides 4G broadband in central London. This is slightly different to mobile 4G

networks as it is geared towards high capacity data-only connections of up to 50Mbps. As there is no

usage caps and the price is between £15-20, it can be an attractive option.

While a couple of residents in Rotherhithe have been able get access to this service from Relish’s mast in

Wapping, it is not available to the vast majority of Rotherhithe.

Since Relish relaunched in 2014, they have repeatedly said that they are expanding and would consider

coming to Rotherhithe. A tweet in February indicated they were planning to come to Rotherhithe in 2016.

This was contradicted by another tweet some days later which stated they had no current plans to come

to Rotherhithe.

Relish have not submitted any planning applications for masts or aerials in Rotherhithe so it doesn’t

appear Relish will be coming anytime soon.

In October 2015 it was reported that UK Broadband, the company behind Relish, logged heavy losses.19

It difficult to ascertain what effect this will have their expansion plans.

SeeTheLight

SeeTheLight provides a 50 - 300Mbps fibre service to the Maple Quays development around Canada

Water Station. This was a contract set up by Barretts Homes when the development first opened.

19 http://bit.ly/1RlXFLm

11 Universal Service Obligation

The Universal Service Obligation (USO) was introduced in 1984 and ensures that basic fixed line telecom

services, mainly from BT, are available at an affordable price to all customers across the UK. The

government is currently consulting on updating the USO and it is hoped that once in place by 2020

everyone will have a legal right to request a 10 Mbps minimum speed broadband connection.

While waiting a further 4 years to get even this basic broadband speed is too long, for many in

Rotherhithe it will be a huge leap forward. It would also help those residents who cannot afford the more

expensive solutions to get at least an improved broadband speed.

Postcodes requiring help to meet proposed 10 Mbps USO


12 Figure 1: Superfast Broadband Coverage

BT Openreach Virgin Media

All Providers Combined

Grey areas indicate a mismatch in data

points between the census data used for

the mapping and the data collected by

ThinkBroadband. Data is still collected for

these areas and reflected in the figures in

Tables 1 and 2.

Graphics and data: ThinkBroadband

13 Table 1: Superfast Broadband – All Suppliers

Percentage of superfast access across London Boroughs and connection speeds under 10 Mbps.

24 Mbps and over is UK Governments classification of superfast broadband.

30 Mbps and over is Ofcom and EU classification of superfast broadband.

London Borough Fibre

all providers*

Over 24 Mbps*

Over 30 Mbps*

BT Openreach >30 Mbps

VirginMedia >30 Mbps

Under 10 Mbps

Barking and Dagenham 98.6 98.6 98.5 97.6 90.7 0.3

Barnet 95.1 94.2 93.9 92.5 42.3 2.9

Bexley 95.1 94.8 94.7 93.7 69.1 1.5

Brent 96.8 95.6 95.4 92.8 64.5 1.2

Bromley 96.2 95.7 95.6 91 86.2 1.4

Camden 97.7 97.6 97.6 84 93.4 0.1

City of Westminster 72.6 71.4 71.1 65.3 45.1 1.1

Croydon 97.9 97.2 97.1 90.6 86.5 0.7

Ealing 97.1 96.4 96.2 94.1 66.9 1.6

Enfield 98.8 98.7 98.7 96.4 90.7 0.3

Greenwich 94 93.5 93.5 91.1 72.2 1.7

Hackney 97.5 97.2 97.1 84.6 76.7 0.2

Hammersmith and Fulham 93.6 90.7 90.5 88.5 43 1.3

Haringey 98.2 98.2 98.1 95.5 84.7 0

Harrow 98.2 98.1 98 96.4 81.4 0.6

Havering 97.8 97.4 97.2 95.5 80.8 0.7

Hillingdon 96.4 95.8 95.8 94.2 82.3 1

Hounslow 98.4 98.1 98.1 95 88 0.9

Islington 96.6 95.8 95.8 72.3 89.6 0.4

Kensington and Chelsea 95.8 95.5 95.4 89.4 88.3 0.4

Kingston upon Thames 99.4 98.9 98.9 95.2 91.5 0.5

Lambeth 95.4 94.4 94.3 86.3 77 0.5

Lewisham 96.2 94.6 94.5 87.5 64.9 1.5

Merton 98.6 98.5 98.4 94.1 90.2 0.4

Newham 93.4 93.2 93.2 91.8 33.9 1.8

Redbridge 98 97.9 97.8 95 90.2 0.3

Richmond upon Thames 97.5 97.4 97.3 94.4 91.3 0.4

Southwark 88 86.5 86.3 70.8 71.8 4.1

Sutton 99.3 99 98.9 95.1 87.8 0.2

Tower Hamlets 74.6 71.2 70.8 65.5 16.5 4.7

Waltham Forest 98.9 98.9 98.9 97.8 90.7 0.3

Wandsworth 95.1 93.3 93.2 89 68.5 0.9


* BT Openreach, Virgin Media and alternative suppliers.

14 Table 2: BT Superfast Broadband – 2015/2017

Percentage of BT Openreach superfast access (>30Mbps) across London Boroughs.

Brackets show relative position between boroughs.

Authority Name March 2015 March 2017

Barking and Dagenham 97.6 (2) 100 (1)

Barnet 92.5 (17) 97.7 (22)

Bexley 93.7 (15) 100 (1)

Brent 92.8 (16) 99 (1)

Bromley 91 (20) 98.1 (20)

Camden 84 (28) 100 (1)

City of Westminster 65.3 (32) 100 (1)

Croydon 90.6 (21) 97.1 (24)

Ealing 94.1 (13) 97.4 (23)

Enfield 96.4 (3) 98.7 (17)

Greenwich 91.1 (19) 100 (1)

Hackney 84.6 (27) 97 (25)

Hammersmith and Fulham 88.5 (24) 96.8 (26)

Haringey 95.5 (5) 100 (1)

Harrow 96.4 (4) 100 (1)

Havering 95.5 (6) 96.5 (27)

Hillingdon 94.2 (12) 98.1 (19)

Hounslow 95 (9) 100 (1)

Islington 72.3 (29) 90.2 (31)

Kensington and Chelsea 89.4 (22) 100 (1)

Kingston upon Thames 95.2 (7) 98.2 (18)

Lambeth 86.3 (26) 95.8 (28)

Lewisham 87.5 (25) 100 (1)

Merton 94.1 (14) 100 (1)

Newham 91.8 (18) 95.4 (29)

Redbridge 95 (10) 100 (1)

Richmond upon Thames 94.4 (11) 100 (1)

Southwark 70.8 (30) 86.2 (32)

Sutton 95.1 (8) 100 (1)

Tower Hamlets 65.5 (31) 87.9 (31)

Waltham Forest 97.8 (1) 100 (1)

Wandsworth 89 (23) 98.1 (21)

Data source: ThinkBroadband & BT

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Think Broadband who have been extremely helpful and supplied much of the

data for this report.

ThinkBroadband.com

To help improve the accuracy of the data please visit their website and carry out a speed test:

http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/?caseid=southwark

“ThinkBroadband is an independent site, well-respected in the industry.”

Andrew Campling, BT General Manager for London

progress update march 2016

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