Home » 

UK ISP News Archives

 » 
Sponsored Links

Government Reveals Second UK Batch of Superfast Broadband ISP Pilot Areas

Posted: 27th May, 2011 By: MarkJ
uk fibre optic broadband cableuk mapThe government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, which has a budget of £530m (rising to £830m by 2017) to help 90% of "people in each local authority area" gain access to a superfast broadband (25Mbps+) service by 2015 (the last 10% will have to make do with a minimum speed of 2Mbps), has today revealed the second batch of five pilot locations.

Approximately £50m of the BDUK budget has been set aside for the second round of superfast broadband ISP deployment projects, although many local authorities are known to have requested significantly more. Sadly none of the approved projects are in either Scotland or Wales.
BDUK Superfast Broadband Projects - Second Round
* Wiltshire (England) - £4m
* Norfolk (England) - £15m
* Devon (England) - £30m shared with Somerset
* Somerset (England) - £30m shared with Devon
This outcome will sadly leave some areas, especially in Wales, with a deep feeling of rejection. Happily a further announcement, which will cover funding for every local authority in the country, is expected to be made "later this year".

The government currently anticipates that an additional 18 local authorities who bid for a slice of BDUK budget will receive funding before 2015's general election. However some areas may need to revise their plans in order to better fit into the governments cash strapped budget.

Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said:

"Broadband is becoming just as essential to homes and businesses as electricity and telephone lines and it is now only a matter for time before people in these three rural areas have access to the connection speeds more commonly associated with towns and cities.

This is great news for people in Wiltshire, Norfolk and Devon & Somerset, and other councils will soon have the chance to bid for a nationwide funding programme. This is part of our plan for virtually every community in the UK to have access to superfast broadband."

Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, added:

"Broadband is vital to the economic and social growth of rural communities, and the Government is determined to ensure that all the benefits of fast and reliable access is available to people across the countryside.

Our new £20million Rural Community Broadband Fund will also help to end the rural digital divide allowing farmers to file vital paperwork online, schoolchildren to do their homework online and for people in the countryside to enjoy the social networking and online shopping that the rest of us take for granted."

The first round of "market testing pilots", which included the Highlands and Islands (Scotland), North Yorkshire, Herefordshire and Cumbria (England), were announced last October 2010. Sadly the pace of progress has since been painfully slow, with most still trying to choose (tender) the right suppliers for their respective areas (here).

In other locations a number of promising projects have been stalled after local authorities put their spending on hold, usually in the hope of gaining a government handout. The Director of community broadband provider Fibrestream UK, Guy Jarvis, has warned that there is a major state aid problem emerging concerning market distortion (here).

The Director Fibrestream (NextGenUs), Guy Jarvis, warned today:

"The reality is that NextGenUs represents an inconvenient truth, namely that there is nothing like the scale of market failure in the UK that the so-called Final Third (in reality a BT begging bowl) makes out.

NextGenUs has pointed out recently it may have no alternative than to seek legal recourse and object to BDUK activities on state aid grounds.

Speaking pragmatically, if NextGenUs could see a real prospect of BDUK genuinely engaging and addressing our legitimate concerns then of course that would be preferable to litigation, where the only guaranteed winners are lawyers!

So, come on BDUK, stop ducking the issues please."

On top of that the slow pace of regulatory change, which is perhaps best epitomised by the endless wrangling over access to BT's cable ducts and telegraph poles (here), certainly hasn't helped. One thing is now painfully clear, the government needs to move a lot faster.

BDUK hopes that suppliers will start rolling out upgraded infrastructure for the new projects within the next 12 months. A mix of technologies will be used including Mobile Broadband , Satellite and Fibre Optic ( FTTP , FTTC ) connections to hubs in the heart of local communities.
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5472)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2524)
  4. Openreach (2291)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules