New telecoms competition: Fibre in Water
A new competition has launched, offering up to £4 million in R&D funding for innovative pilot projects that could see fibre broadband cables could be fed through the country’s water pipes. Fibre in Water (FiW), is a joint project led by DCMS, in partnership with DEFRA, BEIS, and the Geospatial Commission, which will award funding from January 2022 through to 31 March 2024.
The pilots are also expected to help reduce the amount of water lost every day due to leaks, which is 20% of the total put into the public supply. It will involve putting connected sensors in the pipes which allow water companies to improve the speed and accuracy with which they can identify a leak and repair it. Water companies have committed to delivering a 50% reduction in leakage, and this project can help to reach that goal.
FiW aims to help telecoms companies accelerate the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband networks across some of the harder to reach areas in the UK, by utilising existing national infrastructure as a quicker and more cost-effective way of connecting fibre optic cables to homes, businesses and mobile masts, without the disruption caused by digging up roads and land.
Civil works, in particular installing new ducts and poles, can make up as much as four fifths of the costs to industry of building new gigabit-capable broadband networks.
The competition announcement follows a 2020 consultation into the Access to Infrastructure Regulations, which already allows telecoms companies access to passive infrastructure in rolling out fixed and mobile networks — a government response is expected to this consultation shortly. It also follows the Geospatial Commission's Annual Plan 2021/2022, which prioritised the building of the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR)— the development of a new data asset for the UK to drive efficiencies in infrastructure delivery, including broadband, across the UK and help improve worker safety.
Overview: What is Fibre in Water?
Background: Fibre in Water
The Fibre in Water: Improving Access to Advanced Broadband and Mobile Services via Drinking Water Mains (FiW) project is to pilot and facilitate delivery of advanced broadband and mobile services via drinking water mains. This will help to align policy, regulation and commercial interests across five Government departments, multiple agencies as well as the private sector in the water and telecoms industries.
The project will look to test barriers in regulations, approvals and licensing at national, regional and local levels and reduce time, cost, disruption and carbon costs associated with delivering gigabit capable digital services and mobile coverage. The project will also look to demonstrate how this vital infrastructure (water and telecoms) can be delivered together, while delivering savings to customers. This will both support economic development in some of the UK’s hardest to reach communities, and simultaneously enable the modernisation of the water industry, including solving the challenge it faces from the removal of the copper public switched telephone network (PSTN) between 2021 and 2025.
The project will also enable the water industry to radically reduce the current 20% clean water leakage and resulting carbon emissions, passing on benefits to consumers through lower bills. This is part of a wider industry effort as well as Ofwat which has a 50% reduction target on leakage.
Deployment challenges for essential utilities like water and telecoms are complex, and are tightly regulated as both are key pillars of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). There are significant synergies between critical infrastructures that could be exploited if the deployment challenges can be overcome.
While some of the prior technical barriers to delivering FiW appear resolvable, barriers to adoption remain in regulation and coordination. Working collaboratively between departments, regulators and agencies as well as the two industries is essential for this project to succeed.
This competition aims to find a suitable consortium of partners to deliver feasibility studies and technical pilot(s), as well as represent the interests and challenges faced by their industries.
Objectives: Fibre in Water
- Execute a Feasibility Study to de-risk and inform the detailed scope, costs and benefits of the pilot implementation. Sign-off of this study will form a gate for progression with the rest of the Pilot.
- Deploy a FiW pilot solution in the UK at sufficient scale to explore the technical, security, operational, regulatory and commercial challenges and benefits to all stakeholders and to give confidence that the solution could be scaled nationally.
- Support DCMS in building a community or ecosystem around the pilot that will ensure wide adoption of FiW, sharing key learning in the form of case study, technical reports and other project outputs.
- Collaborate with DCMS, DEFRA and their partners to inform and test regulatory, commercial, operational and cultural barriers to widespread adoption of FiW
Competition timeline and events
There will be opportunities to learn more about the competition and discuss with potential collaboration partners at a series of direct engagement events:
| Briefing Events | Date |
|---|---|
| Launch Event | 10th August |
| Matchmaking Event | 10th August |
For this competition the application window is open for 8 weeks and the timeline is:
| Milestones | Date |
|---|---|
| Competition launch | 9th August 2021 |
| Applications deadline (8 weeks) | 4th October 2021 |
| Shortlisted applicants notified | Mid October 2021 |
| Interviews with shortlisted applicants | Late October 2021 |
| Successful applicant notified | November 2021 |
| Grant claim period | January 2022 - 31 March 2024 |
How to apply
Who can apply?
This competition is open to applications from consortia of two or more members with funding available for activity taking place in the UK.
How to apply
Please read the Competition Guidance, complete the Application Form, the Finance Forms and Participation Agreement provided and submit your documents to the following email address: [email protected]. You will receive an email acknowledgement of your registration.
Funding
There is up to £4 million of funding available from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) in this competition. Grants up to £4 million will be made available to individual projects. DCMS may opt to award one or more grants from the fund.
For full details on the Fibre in Water competition and guidance documents, please visit the DCMS website.
Sophie Greaves
Sophie Greaves
Sophie Greaves is Head of Programme for Communications Infrastructure and Services at techUK, and oversees the UK Spectrum Policy Forum.
Sophie was promoted to Head having been Programme Manager for Communications Infrastructure and Services, leading techUK's telecoms activities, engagement and policy development. Previously, Sophie was Programme Assistant across a variety of areas including the Broadband Stakeholder Group, Central Government, Financial Services and Communications Infrastructure programmes.
Prior to joining techUK, Sophie completed a masters in Film Studies at University College London; her dissertation examined US telecoms policy relating to net neutrality and content distribution.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2038
- Twitter:
- @SJMJames1
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiegreaves/
Mia Haffety
Mia Haffety
Mia joined techUK in September 2023 as the Programme Manager for telecoms and net zero.
Sitting across two teams, Mia works to ensure that policy and regulatory conditions promote investment and innovation in the telecoms sector. And, that policy enables technology and digital solutions to deliver net zero ambitions.
Prior to joining techUK, Mia worked as a Senior Policy Adviser at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) leading on manufacturing and industrial decarbonisation policy.
Mia holds an MSc in International Development from the University of Manchester and a BA(Hons) in Politics and International Relations from the University of Nottingham.
Outside of work, Mia enjoys travelling, running, and cooking.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Twitter:
- @MiaHaffety,
- Website:
- www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/miahaffety/
Tales Gaspar
Tales Gaspar
Tales has a background in law and economics, with previous experience in the regulation of new technologies and infrastructure.
In the UK and Europe, he offered consultancy on intellectual property rights of cellular and IoT technologies and on the regulatory procedures at the ITU as a Global Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI).
Tales has an LL.M in Law and Business by the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and an MSc in Regulation at the London School of Economics, with a specialization in Government and Law.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- +44 (0) 0207 331 2000
- Website:
- www.techUK.org
- LinkedIn:
- www.linkedin.com/in/talesngaspar
