Extending High Speed Broadband in Wales

Description

Procurement: The Welsh Government is conducting a procurement to establish a framework (the “Framework”) to deliver the Extending High Speed Broadband project (the "Project"). Once the Framework is established, the Authority intends to award a series of call-off contracts (following individual competitive selection processes), that will provide grant funding to telecoms suppliers to cover the "gap" in costs that are required to deliver superfast connections to communities / premises in Wales that would not otherwise be served by commercial operators under normal market conditions, due to the high infrastructure cost of building connections to those "hard to reach" communities / premises. Coverage: Following a recent review, the Welsh Government has identified that around 84,000 premises within Wales do not have access to superfast download speeds (at least 30Mbps) exacerbating the digital divide. Ofcom has previously stated that a subset of these (around 10,000 premises) do not yet have access to at least 10Mbps. While there are existing interventions scheduled by the telecommunications industry and UK Government public funded interventions, the remote and hard-to-reach areas that have been identified are unlikely to be addressed commercially and it is not certain that they will be addressed by further publicly funded interventions. The number of premises that are anticipated to be in scope for the Framework will be provided as part of the associated tender documents, but this will be subject to refinement/update during the duration of the Framework. The premises that are in-scope for each call-off contract will be confirmed in the relevant request for proposals issued under the Framework. Preliminary Market Engagement: The Welsh Government is publishing this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice to notify suppliers of its intention to conduct a procurement for the Project, and identify likely contract terms for the Framework and call-off contracts that may be awarded under the Framework. This exercise builds on previous market engagement that the Welsh Government conducted under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as referred to in the Prior Information Notice with reference ocds-kuma6s-131418 . Additional Information: The Welsh Government expects the Framework will have two lots. The first lot will be for projects that require the installation of broadband network infrastructure to 1,000 premises and over. The second lot will be for projects that require the installation of broadband network infrastructure to under 1,000 premises. The second lot will be suitable for SME’s and Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs). The Authority expects the first Framework will commence in summer 2025 with the first call-off contract under the Framework being awarded in autumn 2025. Please note that the estimated total value set out in this notice is in respect of all call-off contracts that may be awarded under the Framework. At this stage, it is an estimate only and is in no way guaranteed or final. The associated tender documents for this opportunity will contain more specific information. The dates and total duration for the Framework and any call-off contracts referred to in this notice are also estimates and for illustrative purposes only. The associated tender documents for this opportunity will confirm the relevant anticipated dates for the Framework.