The UK agency overseeing their project to provide broadband access to 90% of homes by 2015 recently reported that the project is behind schedule, and is unlikely to meet that time goal.
Under the Broadband Delivery UK program, incumbent telco BT will spend some 2.5 billion pounds to expand broadband access in commercially viable areas, while the British Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was allocated 530 million pounds to subsidize broadband infrastructure in more rural areas. Despite a target of completing procurement deals by the end of this year, the DCMS has acknowledge that about two-thirds of local authorities covered by the policy have yet to start the procurement process. Legal challenges to the procurement process have delayed implementation; in addition, the costs involved in having to submit separate bids for each contract (rather than allowing bidders to combine coverage areas under a single bid), have led many potential bidders to drop out and leaving BT as the default contractor in many cases.
As a result, expansion in rural areas has already fallen seriously behind schedule, with indications that many in those areas will end up having broadband access with speeds less than a tenth that of urban customers.
Source - UK to miss 2015 target for high-speed broadband, telecoms.com
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