Portsmouth Makes Broadband Vouchers Available Outside the City

The city of Portsmouth in Hampshire (England) has joined Bristol to make their local £4.7m superfast broadband Connection Vouchers available to businesses outside of the city’s boundary. The vouchers, worth between £200 and £3,000 +vat per firm, are designed to help SME businesses install a superfast broadband (30Mbps+) connection.

Unfortunately the Government’s voucher scheme, which is available to 22 cities across the United Kingdom, has suffered due to low uptake (here) and so, as well as making the application process easier, some city authorities have also been making them available outside of their city limits.

In Portsmouth’s case businesses in Gosport, Fareham and Havant can now gain access to the grants. Fareham in particular is more than 5km from the centre of Portsmouth. Applications are being accepted now and the scheme remains open until 31st March 2015.

Donna Jones, Leader of Portsmouth City Council, said:

“This scheme allows us to help small and medium sized businesses in Portsmouth increase their broadband speed to make their business more efficient. It is excellent news that businesses in the wider Solent area can also access this funding thanks to phase two of the scheme. This will enable them to improve broadband connectivity. We have worked hard to secure this opportunity for local businesses.

Superfast broadband is more reliable, and makes businesses more efficient and competitive. I would therefore urge all those businesses in Portsmouth and also now in the wider region without this connectivity, to apply for a voucher.”

It’s probably fair to expect that most of the related city authorities will now adopt a similar approach, especially those where uptake has been lowest.