Fibre Community Partnership

Overview: this article contains links to the OpenReach FTTP program for community projects, where the community joins together to fund fibre installation. Note: this is not to be confused with "FTTPoD", where any individual property can request a survey and have fibre installed without needing to form a legal community entity.

Official OpenReach website: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-community-partnership

Under the scheme funding can be drawn down from:

• DCMS up to £1500 per home - https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/
  • A target number of participants will be agreed
  • Once the target is met, participants must pay their upfront share (50%) of the charges within 2 months for the project to move forward
• OpenReach may co-fund sometimes up to 50% of the project costs
• Community (individuals) may join together and aggregate their funds

A legal entity will need to be created, and an individual in the community volunteers to be to legal point of contact; see https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-community-partnership#The%20small%20print

Typical installs take around 1 year or longer. In rural areas costs for bringing a fibre line into a community via OpenReach can range from £20k to £1m+ and will depend on detailed survey and consultation with any local authority planning/highways departments.

Example

4 homes ("participants") form a legal entity and secure DCMS fund + OpenReach funding.

• Example survey quotation: £50,000+VAT install fee (£60,000 inc.VAT)
• Example DCMS funding: £750 per participant (£3,000 combined)
• OpenReach 50% fund the remaining £47,500+VAT (£57,000 inc.VAT)
• The participants each provide £5,937.50+VAT (£7,125 inc.VAT) to fund the remaining £23,750+VAT (£28,500 inc.VAT)
  • Each participant pays 50% upfront within 2 months £2,968.75+VAT (£3,562.50 inc.VAT)
  • Work commences, and will likely take 1 year or more
  • Each participant pays 50% balance within 1 month of the work being classed as "complete" £2,968.75+VAT (£3,562.50 inc.VAT)
  • Once each participant has paid the full amount the circuit is switched live and the participants all have fibre broadband