back to article Fujitsu pulls a muscle, drops out of race for £530m broadband pot

Fujitsu has admitted it will no longer bid for money from a £530m pot of taxpayer cash to roll-out broadband in Britain's countryside - effectively leaving the lot up for grabs by BT. The national telco has to date been the only preferred bidder to bag any of the dosh, dished out by the government's Ministry of Fun through its …

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  1. mrs doyle

    It was a one horse race

    The tenders were skewed to favour the incumbent, nobody else ever stood a chance. They will deploy their cabinets in lucrative areas and the digital divide will grow ever wider. Poor old blighty. We need a dads army to lay fibre to the rural areas and stop this monopoly wrecking what could have been a digital nation.

  2. Matthew Smith

    "Super-fast broadband by 2015"

    Are there any known hard figures on what speed this 'super-fast' is expected to bring?

    1. Ragarath

      Re: "Super-fast broadband by 2015"

      All along it has been said, 2mbps. That is it :)

    2. HMB

      Re: "Super-fast broadband by 2015"

      20 Mbps is the BDUK super fast definition, unlike the broadband definition of 2 Mbps, though I'm sure when they lay back-haul to rural areas it will feel like 2 Mbps broadband to the locals regardless of the technology at 8pm on a weekday.

  3. Mike Pellatt
    FAIL

    Disgraceful waste of our money

    Had a go at our County Councillor (Kent) when he was trumpeting this BDUK money.

    I pointed out that BT always say that things just aren't commercially viable, drag their heels, and then all of a sudden when either:

    i) the profitability is staring them in the face

    or

    ii) competition arrives

    it all starts happening.

    I objected to my money being spent to (effectively) contribute to BT's profits.

    He didn't see what I was on about, kept trumpeting how people who wouldn't get BB otherwise would get it. I said that, in reality, they would get it too, maybe a little later, but arrive it would.

    This from a Government that claims to support the free market. Not, methinks.

    1. Ramlen
      Alien

      Re: Disgraceful waste of our money

      "they would get it too, maybe a little later, but arrive it would

      This from a Government that claims to support the free market. Not, methinks."

      Yoda? is that you?

    2. Seanmon

      Re: Disgraceful waste of our money

      That's "free" as in "free to those who can afford it.", though. You can't fault them on semantics there.

  4. Bobthe2nd
    FAIL

    see definition incumbent

    It was always on the cards for BT to win it and I suspect they will just outsource it back to the big consultancy firms to do all the management and BT will just provide the shovels.

    It happens all the time, this will save BT money and ensure they aren't undercut during the bidding, whereas the government like pissing away other peoples money, looking important, running bid round after bid round.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    clueless?

    "outsource it back to the big consultancy firms to do all the management and BT will just provide the shovels."

    When did you last see BT providing trivia like shovels, or staff to operate them?

    The vast majority of this work will be subbed out, to companies already well known to BT, leaving BT themselves to do their value add in "management and co-ordination".

    The vast majority of the end user installation work will also be subbed out, even though it is well known inside BT that the subbies in general later require remedial work which in due course is costing more than the money allegedly saved by not having BT-employed staff do the end user installation work.

    Historically, a fair bit of this infrastructure kind of stuff has been subbed out from BT to (wait for it) Fujitsu.

    Funny old world.

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