Superfast Essex manages multiple broadband connectivity projects across Greater Essex investing funds from Essex County Council, Local District Councils, BDUK and DEFRA. In order to maintain these projects Essex CC needs to maintain an active State Aid Map showing the latest status of superfast broadband availability in Essex.

Superfast broadband is defined as a service that provides download speeds of at least 30Mb/s and which is compliant with the other requirements set out in the EU regulations on Next-Generation Access (NGA) broadband.

Essex CC held an Open Market Review (OMR) and Public consultation in 2016, and there was an opportunity for public consultation on this in 2017 which closed on 31st August 2017. The objective of the 2017 public consultation was to capture the latest status of superfast broadband availability in Essex and to create a coverage map which will serve as the basis for updating delivery on existing contracts (Ph3 and Ph4a), planning extensions to existing contracts (Ph3 and Ph4a) and enable planning on the fourth phase of the Superfast Essex broadband programme (Ph4b).

In July 2018 an Update Report on the 2017 consultation was published, in preparation for the procurement of the Superfast Essex Phase 4b delivery programme (Tranche 2 of Phase 4 as detailed in the previous consultation). We also used this consultation to update our existing state aid maps (Ph3 and Ph4a) awarded to Gigaclear and Openreach.

The 2016 consultation and the July 2018 update were published on the Superfast Essex and Essex County Council websites and a link to the Essex consultation was also provided on the BDUK webpages. Following the closure of the Consultation Update period on 6th August 2018, an updated State aid map was published.

For NGA coverage, Superfast Essex has mapped premises as White, Grey or Black using the following criteria:

· A premises is turned Grey if there is only one broadband infrastructure operator providing NGA services (with speeds greater than 30Mbps) to that postcode.

· A premises is turned Black if there are at least two broadband infrastructure operators providing NGA services (with speeds greater than 30Mbps) to that postcode.

· All other premises remain White. All premises identified as White on this State Aid map are eligible for state intervention.

In addition, the NGA map includes a number of Under Review areas (coloured yellow on the map). These areas have been identified to have:

1. planned commercial coverage for NGA broadband or

2. planned coverage by Superfast Essex, or

3. existing coverage by a network operator whose technology is currently being checked for compliance with the NGA guidelines, or

4. a claim of existing coverage by a network operator, which is still undergoing geographical validation (e.g. postcode-level data being translated to premises-level data).

These Under Review areas will be subject to continued monitoring and verification by Superfast Essex to clarify their status as soon as possible, and within three years at the latest.

Superfast Essex had contacted suppliers in Essex to request updated commercial activity plans as part of its Project Gigabit OMR, as part of the request for gigabit coverage Superfast Essex also requested updated commercial plans for superfast coverage. Both of these submissions were used to inform the map updates proposed in the 2021 Public Consultation.

In line with the continuous monitoring methodology for Under Review premises described above, a number of premises on the 2018 State Aid map were re-assessed and their status changed to either NGA Grey/Black where planned coverage had been delivered or NGA White where plans had fallen away.

It should be noted that the recent Project Gigabit OMR and subsequent Public Review were a separate activity from this NGA broadband Consultation.

Superfast Essex published an updated State Aid map for final feedback from all interested stakeholders on 20th August 2021.

This Public Consultation Update Report was hosted on the ‘What’s happening next?’ page of the Superfast Essex website at www.superfastessex.org/whatshappeningnext and was also accessible from Essex County Council’s website. Anyone wishing to submit final comments on this update of the Public Consultation as described in the report was encouraged to send in feedback via this email address: digital@essex.gov.uk with the subject ‘NGA Broadband Update Consultation July 2021’.

Comments were recorded up to and including the 19th August 2021.

General comments or questions regarding the project, could be directed to the County Council’s Superfast Essex programme team at: www.superfastessex.org/contactus

Alternatively, residents and businesses could find comprehensive and up-to-date information on the Superfast Essex programme at: www.superfastessex.org

The Superfast Essex public consultation finished on the 19th August 2021 and no responses were received from suppliers. There were numerous responses from resident which were checked by Superfast Essex and it was identified that 54 UPRNs across 14 postcodes had no existing or planned commercial coverage and were changed from NGA Under Review to NGA White.

These changes were in relation to coverage from Openreach, Gigaclear, County Broadband and Virgin Media. We notified the affected operators that the statuses have been changed. The state aid map for NGA broadband coverage was updated to show this change.

The updated State Aid map for NGA Broadband has been published as a tabular and graphic version at postcode level in the appendices of this Further Update Report. A summary of the premises classification on the updated State Aid Map for NGA Broadband is shown below:

· NGA Broadband Statistics for Essex – as identified on the updated State Aid Map

1 - NGA Broadband map for Essex August 2021 - map

2 - NGA Broadband map for Essex August 2021 - tabular