Devon and Somerset UK Extend Deadline for Rural Broadband Vouchers

The Connecting Devon and Somerset project in England has extended the deadline for approval of vouchers under their rural subsidy scheme, which offers up to £500 per property to help those stuck in sub-2Mbps broadband areas to get a 10Mbps or faster connection.

The scheme was originally launched in April 2016 (here) and planned to run for one year until March 2017, although the deadline for final approvals was later extended to 30th June 2017. The good news is that the deadline has now been extended again to 30th September 2017.

Take note that the scheme itself has been closed to new applications since November 2016, so this is only for processing those applications that are already in the system or those who feel they were wrongfully declined during an earlier attempt.

CDS Statement

Following final coverage plans for phase 2 CDS will keep a second round of the voucher scheme under review, subject to available funding. Many properties will stand to benefit from new solutions being brought in as part of future phases and we want to make sure that the available public funding is being maximised.

For further enquiries on the voucher scheme, and to register interest in any potential future relaunches of the scheme please email us at broadbandvoucher-mailbox@devon.gov.uk .

Any premises that are declined vouchers but are receiving speeds less than 2Mbps and feel they should be approved can email broadbandvoucher-mailbox@devon.gov.uk with a screenshot of their speed to have their voucher approved. All those connected through the voucher scheme are still eligible for later extensions of the broader programme.

We suspect that part of the reason for the extended deadline is because some of those who have applied for vouchers live in areas where alternative network (altnet) providers are still in the process of rolling out new infrastructure, which can sometimes take longer than expected (engineering complications etc.).

ISPreview.co.uk has heard from a few people in the above situation and some were concerned that the delays might cause them to lose their voucher. CDS appear to be giving such areas as much flexibility as possible to get setup.

The CDS councils are currently considering a second follow-on voucher scheme and we understand that this would most likely run from the start of October 2017 and probably last for another year, although as above the team are first waiting to finalise a supplier for the final Phase 2 – Lot 1 area (Upper CDS).