West Sussex Council Launch 4G Mobile Broadband Voucher Scheme
The West Sussex County Council (WSCC) in England has launched a new voucher scheme to help local “businesses suffering from the slowest broadband speeds“, which will provide funding to help them connect via an alternative 4G-based mobile broadband solution.
The new 4G Mobile Broadband Voucher Scheme typically offers up to £1,250 per qualifying business to cover the costs of a practical signal test and the subsequent installation of the new 4G solution, including all necessary equipment (e.g. mobile router, cables and external antenna).
In order to be eligible, the property must be a registered business address (which can include home-based businesses) with existing fixed line broadband speeds of 10Mbps or slower. Applications will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, if existing speeds are slightly faster.
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Some businesses, such as the Albourne Estate, an award-winning winery, have already adopted the solution and were even able to power a free WiFi service from it.
Steve Waight, County Council Cabinet Member (Digital Infrastructure), said:
“We are determined to support our county’s businesses to benefit from digital connectivity that helps them trade and grow to their full potential. We know there are many small businesses in need of a strong and reliable internet connection to support their daily activities and promote their business’ innovation and growth. I encourage them to explore this opportunity to test out and use a 4G alternative, with the confidence that testing and installation costs will be covered.”
The scheme may not specifically mention 5G, but at the same time, there isn’t any technical reason why the purchased hardware couldn’t support both 4G and 5G – signal allowing. One catch here is that mobile broadband speeds can be highly variable and don’t benefit from the same protections as exist on fixed line connections.
The limitations of mobile connectivity may also mean that this, in many cases, may only be good enough to power smaller businesses or those with only fairly modest data demands. But past a certain point, it may make more sense to invest in a satellite solution like Starlink or, for larger firms, to pay big for a leased line.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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This is a complete waste of public money.
Any business that’s viable should be able to fund the cost of a router / antenna and data connection. Over a 3 year lifecycle the hardware cost will be under £15 a month.
Likewise, unlimited data multi-year pre paid SIM cards are typically around £12 a month or less.
That seems like poor use of public money. Decent 4G/5G routers cost no more than £400, even with external antennas.
Anyone charging more than this is profiteering.