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The UK government has today unexpectedly announced that alternative network operator FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes), which recently completed its merger with Zzoomm (here) and confirmed further job losses (here), has “mutually agreed to terminate” their state aid supported Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for the Derbyshire Peak District and Herefordshire.
Just to recap. The combined full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, which currently covers 600,000 premises (ready for service) and “over” 70,000 customers (up from 65k+ in January 2025) across England, secured both the £23.4m West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean (Lot 15) contract – aiming to cover 7,900 rural premises – and the £10.7m Peak District (Lot 3.01) contract – aiming to cover 4,400 premises – back in April 2024 (here).
The first premises under these were due to go live by the end of 2024, with Lot 15 expected to benefit areas such as Hay-on-Wye, Hereford, Kingstone, Ewyas Harold and Ross-on-Wye. By comparison, Lot 3.01 was due to help connect towns and villages such as Matlock, Birchover, Buxton, Ashover and communities in the Hope Valley.
However, in a brief statement released by BDUK a few moments ago, a spokesperson for the agency said:”BDUK and FullFibre have mutually agreed to terminate the Project Gigabit contract for West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean. BDUK is now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract.” An identical statement was issued for the Peak District.
At the time of writing we don’t yet know why this has occurred (we’ll be seeking a comment), although the development follows only a few short months after another network operator, Voneus, similarly dropped out of the smaller £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (here) and Freedom Fibre then did the same for Cheshire (here).
Smaller altnets are currently known to be under a lot of strain from high interest rates, rising build costs and competition. The outcome is also starting to call into question the credibility of awarding so many Project Gigabit contracts to smaller players, although it should be said that many other altnets are continuing to deliver on their promises to the scheme.