Welsh Government Quietly Reopens ABC Broadband Voucher Scheme UPDATE

The Welsh Government (WG) appears to have quietly reopened their Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant scheme during the middle of last week. This is being backed by an investment pot of £1 million (annual budget) and offers funding to help rural homes get a 30Mbps+ broadband service installed in areas of slow connectivity.

Just to recap. The WG’s scheme was paused at the end of last summer to help bring it more up-to-date (here), particularly in light of the UK’s government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout programme – this has long aimed to help extend gigabit broadband (1000Mbps+) networks to reach “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030 (here). A number of related contracts for Wales have since been awarded to Openreach (here and here).

The WG had previously stated that the pause in their ABC scheme would allow them to update it to “reflect new broadband technology and market changes“, while also reviewing the “grant limits and how the scheme is run to keep it targeted, flexible, and responsive“. In March 2025 we then posted an update on all this (here), which revealed that the WG “anticipated that the scheme [would] reopen in the Spring” with some changes.

The good news is that, without any big announcements being made, readers of ISPreview have spotted that the WG appears to have quietly re-opened the ABC scheme last week (here). But the updated scheme only appears to have benefitted from a few smaller tweaks, and thus retains much of the same focus as it had before the pause.

For example, there’s no longer the option of a smaller £400 voucher for 10Mbps+ speeds, but they do still offer a single voucher worth “up to” £800 per premises for areas looking to get a 30Mbps+ capable connection installed (funding is split between equipment [£550] and installation costs [£250]). The scheme is open to both homes and businesses.

ABC Core Eligibility criteria

The scheme is open to premises provided they meet all the following criteria:

➤ is within the geographical boundary of Wales.

➤ is not able to achieve a connection of a minimum of 30mbps download speeds via any provider.

➤ has not previously received any public funding from any other UK public sector broadband intervention.

➤ has not received funding from the ABC Scheme within the past 48 months (including the paused scheme) regardless of speeds achieved during this timeframe.

➤ has a unique premises reference number (UPRN)

The scheme states that “any technology is eligible” (e.g. satellite, fixed wireless access, 4G/5G mobile, FTTP etc.), provided the installation is capable of achieving download speeds of at least 30Mbps. But the limited level of funding involved per premises does tend to rule out FTTP as a choice in most rural areas, where such deployments are often a lot more expensive than £800 per premises, except in a few cases.

The revised vouchers are thus unlikely to have a huge impact on the market or even gigabit coverage. But they do at least provide another option to help fully or partially fund solutions for those who can’t get access to a 30Mbps+ connection via existing fixed broadband lines.

UPDATE 16th May 2025 @ 9:47am

It took a few days, but the WG finally responded when we asked for some clarity over what else had changed.

The Welsh Government told ISPreview:

“The updated Access Broadband Cymru Grant Scheme guidance provides clarity on cost thresholds for broadband installation and equipment. This allows us to monitor costs and gives us the opportunity to change thresholds should the need arise.

Considerable work has been undertaken to update back-office systems, making the application process much quicker and easier for applicants, whilst also supporting us to make quicker assessments of eligibility.”