DSSB Rest of Scotland Gainshare Public Consultation

5. Information Requested

If you are a telecommunications provider, this section specifies the information you are requested to provide in response to this State Aid public consultation.

The DSSB Programme is requesting information on, and supporting evidence for, any current broadband infrastructure or planned investment (within the next 3 years) in Scotland, where these may not already be included within the proposed NGA and Basic Broadband Intervention Area maps attached. An Excel spreadsheet has been made available which lists all the 'in scope' postcodes coloured white on the map.

For the avoidance of doubt, if you are content with our proposed State Aid Intervention Areas, no further response is required.

For any current or planned coverage not included within the proposed State Aid Intervention Areas shown on the attached maps, the DSSB Programme is requesting information on the premises covered (or planned to be covered) by your broadband infrastructure investment. The DSSB Programme is asking for information on coverage of Basic Broadband and NGA Broadband coverage separately (to enable us to map the Basic Broadband and NGA White/Grey/Black maps required for State Aid purposes). By 'covered' (or 'passed') the DSSB Programme means that fixed network infrastructure is or will be available to the premises, potentially subject to a final drop connection, or that the premises are able to receive a suitable quality radio signal over the air interface (in the case of wireless or satellite coverage), potentially subject to the installation of a suitable antenna. Where an operator is responding with current or planned coverage for NGA, it must respond to confirm those premises that it is able to provide a broadband service with an access line speed (or equivalent) of at least 30Mbps.

Any information provided in response to this State Aid public consultation should include, but need not be limited to:

• Detailed maps for NGA and Basic Broadband showing the existing coverage, and separately maps detailing the planned investment in NGA and Basic Broadband for at least the next 3 years.
• Details of the actual premises covered or passed within postcodes (at 7-digit postcode level), and confirmation that fixed network infrastructure is available to the premises, potentially subject to a final drop connection, or that the premises are able to receive a suitable quality radio signal over the air interface (in the case of wireless or satellite coverage), potentially subject to the installation of a suitable antenna.

A detailed description of the technology solution(s) deployed (or to be deployed) in your broadband infrastructure, and where these claim to be NGA, demonstrate how they meet the minimum standards as set out in the BDUK NGA Technology Guidelines ^[1] .

• A description of the services/products currently offered, and separately those services/products to be offered within the next 3 years.
• Installation, annual/monthly subscription, and additional volume or per-service tariffs for those services/products (identifying whether such tariffs are inclusive or exclusive of VAT).
• Upload and download speeds typically experienced by end-users, and how these may vary by factors such as distance, increased take-up or demand, contention, etc.
• Appropriate indicators of the quality of services ( e.g. contention ratios, bandwidth allocation per user, etc), including any characteristics ( e.g. latency, jitter) that are required to support advanced services such as video conferencing or HD video streaming.
• Evidence to substantiate actual or planned coverage claims, including business cases and evidence of available funding to enable plans to be fulfilled.
• Details and planned timing of roll-out of any future investments, including further investments required to cope with future increases in take-up and demand.

Please supplement the required information above with any supporting evidence as you consider appropriate ( e.g. links to public websites, etc).