Consultation outcome

Closure of the May 2023 National Rolling Open Market Review

Updated 6 October 2023

The May 2023 National Rolling Open Market Review (NR OMR) ran from 19 May to 20 June 2023.

Building Digital UK (BDUK) requested that suppliers submit their national broadband infrastructure plans, so as to confirm where gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure currently exists or is planned to be built in the UK over the next 3 years.

We have now completed evaluating all submissions received and issued formal responses to all suppliers who submitted information over the course of this exercise; including the subsidy control classification treatment of their existing or planned qualifying broadband infrastructure.

Details on the classification system of Gigabit White, Grey, Black and Under Review and methodology can be found in the section below BDUK Classifications and methodology for this National Rolling Open Market Review.

Further information on the NR OMR/Open Market Review (OMR)/Public Review (PR) process and how we reach our conclusions can be found in our Subsidy Control Guidance document.

1. Purpose of the National Rolling Open Market Review

The purpose of the NR OMR, which operates on a 4-monthly basis (January, May and September), is to ensure that BDUK has the most up to date information about suppliers’ existing and planned build over the next 3-year period.

This supports better strategic planning and prioritisation of our procurement Intervention Areas (IAs), has streamlined the previous ‘local’ OMR process and minimises the risk of BDUK intervening in an area that would disrupt existing commercial plans.

For further guidance on how BDUK determines our IAs for subsidy, please refer to Section 6 ‘Determining Intervention Areas’ of our Subsidy Control Guidance document.

Data collected from the NR OMR is also used to inform GigaHubs and UK Gigabit Voucher eligibility as well as support the development of other potential BDUK interventions.

2. BDUK classifications and methodology for this National Rolling Open Market Review

During the NR OMR, BDUK categorised premises as Gigabit White, Grey, Black or Under Review.

Subsidy control classifications are set out below:

• White - indicates premises with no gigabit network infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within 3 years ^{[footnote 1]}
• Grey - indicates premises where a single qualifying gigabit infrastructure from a single supplier is available, or is to be deployed within the coming 3 years ^{[footnote 1]}
• Black - indicates premises with two or more qualifying gigabit infrastructures from different suppliers being available, or will be deployed within the coming 3 years ^{[footnote 1]}
• Under Review - indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidence

BDUK will only provide subsidy to target premises that have been designated as White. Premises which have been designated as Under Review may be included within the Deferred Scope of a procurement. Where this is the case, a further review will be undertaken to confirm whether they are Grey or White before they are released for build.

In accordance with the OMR/PR processes, supplier data submitted during the NR OMR has been mapped using a methodology that protects commercially sensitive supplier data. To reflect this sensitivity, we will only release White and Under Review Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs).

A full list of resulting White and Under Review UPRNs from the May 2023 NR OMR are available on request to suppliers via ukgigabit@BDUK.Zendesk.com.

3. Summary of May 2023 National Rolling Open Market Review findings - premises eligibility

For presentational purposes only, postcode-level mapping has been used to present the NR OMR regional maps showing eligible premises. (NB we will only subsidise build to premises which have been designated as White - postcodes are not used to determine IAs for subsidy).

For this purpose, postcodes have been classified as follows:

1. A postcode is White if any White premises are present

2. A postcode is Under Review if any Under Review premises are present

3. A postcode is Black if all premises in the postcode are classified Black

4. A postcode is Grey if all premises are Grey, or a mixture of Grey and Black

The May 2023 NR OMR postcode level maps summarising these premises classifications have been provided on the May 2023 NR OMR homepage. Suppliers - please note that these maps do not show which UPRNs have been determined as Gigabit White and Gigabit Under Review.

The outcome of the May 2023 NR OMR is summarised in terms of Gigabit White, Grey, Black and Under Review postcodes and premises below which incorporates all regions across England and Wales only.

Postcode classification	Number of postcodes	Number of gigabit Black premises	Number of gigabit Grey premises	Number of gigabit Under Review premises	Number of gigabit White premises
White	412,548	849,555	2,760,754	1,920,947	2,909,540
Under Review	457,585	692,626	2,562,048	4,840,397	0
Grey	513,826	2,110,918	7,693,207	0	0
Black	202,784	4,152,458	0	0	0
Total	1,586,743	7,805,557	13,016,009	6,761,344	2,909,540

4. Differences between National Rolling Open Market Review and Public Review outcome classifications

Please note, the data held by BDUK following a PR is used to define IAs for procurements at a point in time.

Also, not all active suppliers opted to contribute to this May 2023 NR OMR process on this occasion.

Therefore, NR OMR data may differ from the outcome of a PR due to the point in time that the data was captured, or due to different suppliers providing responses.

IA eligibility is therefore defined using a combination of PR and NR OMR data (ie where a supplier has not contributed to the NR OMR, the PR would be expected to take precedence).

The data submitted to the NR OMR is processed in the same way as that submitted to previous ‘local’ OMRs and is used for mapping categorisations of UPRNs. This will generally be fed into a PR process for new areas. However, If BDUK receives new data for UPRNs which have been the subject of a previous PR determination, if it meets the evidential requirements, BDUK may use NR OMR data to update the previous areas by area PR determinations at our own discretion.

5. May 2023 National Rolling Open Market Review Conclusion

For the purposes of the May 2023 NR OMR, BDUK was pleased to extend the invitation to all suppliers to submit a response for consideration, and for the first time include formal assessment of Welsh premises within the NR OMR process.

A total of 58 suppliers, our largest ever response, submitted their coverage plans to the May 2023 NR OMR to help us build a more accurate picture of the areas where we might need to intervene and ensure our build works in tandem with commercial rollout. BDUK would like to thank all suppliers who participated in the NR OMR process via providing a submission.

The May 2023 NR OMR provided BDUK with the opportunity to test newly implemented processes and further build upon lessons learned from previous NR OMRs.

This has resulted in the subsequent September 2023 NR OMR being able to align with this May 2023 iteration by continuing to extend the invitation for all suppliers to submit a response for consideration; and the continued assessment of data and evidence across both England and Wales.

The May 2023 NR OMR outputs have been provided via 10 separate files geographically broken down by Project Gigabit Lots.

The Lot-region output splits within each file are available below:

• East Midlands (Lots 3, 10, 11 and 12)
• East of England (Lots 2, 5, 7 and 21)
• Greater London (Lot 37)
• North East (Lots 4 and 38)
• North West (Lots 9, 17, 28 and 36)
• South East (Lots 1, 13, 16, 22, 26, 27, 29 and 99*)
• South West (Lots 6, 14, 18, 30 and 32)
• Wales (Lots 42, 43, 44 and 45)
• West Midlands (Lots 15, 19, 24, 25 and 35)
• Yorkshire and the Humber (Lots 8, 20, 23 and 31)

[* Lot 99 is a pseudo Lot allocated for the Isle of Wight]

Please see our latest Project Gigabit update for further details on Project Gigabit procurement timelines along with Project Gigabit Contracts for details of contracts awarded by BDUK.

The September 2023 iteration of the NR OMR is currently live, and due to close for responses on 16 October 2023 at 5pm. BDUK will begin undertaking initial evaluation activities of supplier responses shortly after this closing date.

Please see the September 2023 NR OMR Request For Information document for further details.

If you have any questions on the NR OMR process, please contact us at ukgigabit@bduk.zendesk.com.

1. There may be occasions where credible plans extend beyond a 3-year period, in that case, these may be taken into account. ↩ ↩² ↩³