Government Approves Two More UK Superfast Broadband Rollout Plans

The UK governments Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, appears to have confirmed to this week’s annual reception of the All-Party Parliamentary Media Group (APPMG) that he has now approved a further 2 local authorities that failed to get their Local Broadband Plans (LBP) done before the original deadline in April.

Simon Perry, whom works on the Isle of Wight news site VentnorBlog.com, attended last night’s event and today informed ISPreview.co.uk that Hunt had just signed off two of the delayed LBP’s. This appears to stack with what another attendee, whom wishes to remain anonymous, told us last night.

Newly Approved UK Local Broadband Plans

* Essex, Southend-On-Sea, Thurrock
Allocated BDUK Funding: £6,460,000

* Newcastle upon Tyne
Allocated BDUK Funding: £970,000

Back in May 2012 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed that 76.6% of local authority projects had been given the green light to proceed (36 out of 47 approved), which left 11 others either having failed to submit their plans on time or simply refusing to take part (e.g. some felt they could reach the target without state aid).

The majority of plans aim to make superfast broadband (24-30Mbps+) services available to 90% of people in each UK local authority area by the middle of 2015 (the last 10% only get a “commitment” for speeds of at least 2Mbps).

At the time of writing the government has yet to update its spreadsheet to reflect this week’s change, which is fairly normal as they usually only make such updates at the time of a big announcement and not to reflect individual changes as they happen.