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Table 1.3: Selected examples of private DBOs

Name of private DBO Description Chapter 1
Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP) (UK) 23 UK government programme that aims to improve mobile
coverage in remote areas by 2016 (See case study below).

Superfast Cornwall (UK) 24 Project that leverages the resources and expertise of an
established operator (BT) to deliver a large and complex
project.
NGB Wales (Wales) 25 Grant-funded government intervention has been used to
increase the availability of next-generation access (NGA)
broadband coverage in rural areas across Wales.
InfraCo (Nigeria) 26 The core tasks of InfraCo will be to build, operate and
maintain the fibre-optic communication network, and
to lease fibre-optic connections to operators and other
companies, as well as to the public.

National Broadband Initiative (Malaysia) 27 This initiative is rolling out high-speed broadband
infrastructure through a PPP agreement with Telekom
Malaysia Berhad (TM).

Telebras (Brazil) 28 Telebras, the previously dormant incumbent operator,
was re-established in 2007 in order to provide wholesale
services to service providers over its backbone network.

Rural Broadband Initiative (New Zealand) 29 This JV between Vodafone and Telecom New Zealand for
rural network roll-out is subsidized through a government
grant.

Mobile network sharing (Sweden) 30 Mobile operators have entered into a network-sharing
agreement to reduce their costs and to help achieve the
regulator’s coverage obligations.
Source: Analysys Mason, 2015

Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) implemented the MIP was funded through a private DBO
project itself, with the following objectives: arrangement. Arqiva, a UK infrastructure provider,
won the contract to design, build and operate
• To improve the coverage and quality of mobile the masts following a competitive procurement.
network services for the 5-10 per cent of As a result, much of the design and planning
consumers and businesses that live and work responsibility was left to the private sector. But
in areas where mobile network coverage was because MIP was government funded, it had
poor or non-existent; and to gain clearance in December 2012 from the
European Commission, which confirmed that the
• To extend coverage to 99 per cent of the UK project was compatible with the rules of the single
population. market.

• A GBP 150 million capital fund was set aside MIP was expected to connect an additional 60 000
by the UK government to construct new premises out of 80 000 known "not-spots" by the
masts (passive infrastructure only) . These end of 2013 and was slated to conclude in 2015.
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masts, which would be made available to all However, the project encountered delays and its
mobile operators on a wholesale, open-access conclusion was pushed back to March 2016. The
basis, would allow operators to install their first site went live in September 2013, with little
own active equipment and offer 2G, 3G or progress made in 2014 . By December of that
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4G connectivity to end users. The operators year, only two out of several hundred potential
would be reponsible for funding their own
operations.

Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 9