In May 2016, the county council launched a public consultation as part of its preparations for
stage 3 of the Superfast Northamptonshire project.
The State Aid Public Consultation closed on Thursday 30 June 2016.
This public consultation sought views from interested telecoms providers and other stakeholders on the proposed intervention area (white areas) for stage 3. This is where the county council believes there are no commercial telecoms plans for superfast broadband and where public funding is needed to bring forward plans.
The maps provided in the consultation were informed by the outcome of an open market review which the county council launched in November 2015. Telecoms providers were invited to confirm their existing and planned commercial coverage in the county, looking ahead three years - such coverage being defined as Basic Broadband or Next Generation Access (NGA) depending on the quality of technical standards met.
NGA involves fibre optic based networks which are wired or fixed wireless access, and are capable of higher throughput than traditional copper networks.
Find out more about how the intervention area is determined:
Eligible intervention areas for stage 3
The county council has considered the responses to the consultation and prepared revised Basic Broadband and NGA maps. The 'white' areas on the NGA map comprise the eligible intervention area for stage 3.
The maps can be viewed in the State Aid Public Consultation document below:
State Aid clearance
The county council secured State Aid clearance for the procurement from the National Competence Centre on 1 September 2016. Further clearance will be required to enable the county council to award a contract. Stage 3 must comply with the recent decision by the European Commission on a new
National Broadband Scheme for the UK. This forms part of the regulatory framework governing how public funding can be invested in broadband networks.
View the eligible intervention areas for stage 3:
The 'white' areas on the map are areas where public funding can be invested in NGA broadband networks.
The 'blue' areas are under review as commercial plans in the area were uncertain at the time of the State Aid Public Consultation. Existing or planned commercial coverage, or plans already committed anddelivered under Stage 1 or 2 of the project, are shown as Grey or Black on the map.