List of Approved UK ISPs for the Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme

At the end of last year the Government confirmed that they would extend their Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme for one more year, albeit with some changes (here). The scheme offers grants worth up to £350 to help rural premises get a better connection, if they are unable to receive at least a 2Mbps speed today.

According to the Government, there is currently £2.4 million set aside until the end of the scheme (31st December 2019) and 40,445 voucher codes have so far been issued to eligible applicants since its launch in 2015. But they also informed ISPreview.co.uk that only 20,539 of those vouchers have actually resulted in a service being provided.

The original idea of this subsidy was to assist around 300,000 premises by helping to cover the setup / install cost of an inferior Satellite connection (here), but this didn’t prove particularly popular and so was later expanded to include a wide range of fixed wireless, 4G mobile and even some fixed line FTTC / FTTP providers (Openreach’s (BT) Community Fibre Partnerships, B4RN etc.).

However not everybody is aware of which ISPs are approved suppliers for the scheme and so we’ve decided to publish the latest list to coincide with its imminent January 2019 relaunch. The following table includes a column for “coverage“, although this is a very rough indication since it only lists by region / county and yet many of the networks may only reach specific patches inside those locations. Likewise some ISPs have since expanded beyond the listed coverage areas (e.g. B4RN).

We already list most of the alternative network providers in this table (UK ISP Listings), although a few of the ISPs below don’t appear to offer much or any information on their packages, while some others have since merged and a few merely resell services from other operators (i.e. DCMS aren’t brilliant at keeping in sync with recent developments).

Otherwise this is a useful table for people who want to know which ISPs can make use of the subsidy in their area, although it may go through some changes once the BBSS is relaunched this month.

Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme Suppliers