KCOM and Digital Scotland Shortlisted for EU Broadband Awards

KCOM’s £85m rollout of a new FTTP broadband ISP network in Hull, as well as Digital Scotland‘s £442m (public and private investment) work with Openreach (BT) to spread “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) to 940,000 extra Scottish premises, have today both been named as UK finalists for the 2019 European Broadband Awards.

The annual event, which aims to highlight initiatives that have made a real difference in providing citizens with broadband internet connectivity, has this year selected 15 finalists across 5 different categories. Interestingly the highest number of applications for 2019 came from Germany and the UK, while the majority of projects applied under category 3 (“Socio-economic impact in rural and remote areas“).

The good news is that two UK projects (as above) have this year made it into the shortlist for two different categories. Each will now be assessed by a jury of five “European broadband experts” and the winners will then be announced at a special Awards ceremony on the evening of the 2nd of December 2019 in Brussels.

The winners will also be invited to a ‘Boosting Connectivity Investments‘ conference, where they’ll be asked to share their experiences with the audience. On top of that they’ll benefit from being widely promoted via the Digital Single Market web site, in newsletters and other conferences, as well as being displayed in the Broadband Europe good practice database.

As a quick reminder, last year saw the Michaelston-y-Fedw Internet CIC (Myfi) project in Wales, which built their own Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (here), win the “Innovative models of financing, business and investment” category. Hopefully KCOM and Digital Scotland will have similar luck this year.

UPDATE 4:29pm

Added a comment from KCOM below.

Sean Royce, KCOM MD, said:

“I’m absolutely delighted that our Lightstream broadband has been recognised at a European level, showing our full fibre broadband is not only leading the way nationally, but internationally too.

We’ve always believed our investment in a full fibre network would put our region at the forefront of the digital revolution, unleashing an array of untapped potential. Now householders across Hull and East Yorkshire can make the most of the opportunities ultrafast broadband brings while businesses can complete on a truly global playing field.

Fingers crossed we’ll be bringing the award home to Hull in December.”