The Rutland Council (RCC), a tiny rural county in the centre of England (UK), has announced that £200k will be set aside from reserves to help develop its Digital Rutland scheme and support its £1.6m bid for a new superfast broadband ISP network in the region.

Digital Rutland Project Aims for 2012/13 (Minimum Download Speeds)
• 10Mbps to 95% of businesses (with 80% achieving minimum 25Mbps)
• 10Mbps to 85% of households (with 75% achieving minimum 25Mbps)

Rutland is home to a population of approximately 35,000 and can also claim to have the largest man-made lake in Western Europe (Rutland Water). However, with the exception of some good work by ISP Rutland Telecom (RT), many parts of the county still suffer from poor connectivity.


The council is currently waiting to hear if a bid for £1.6 million to the Regional Growth Fund has been successful and further applications for funding are due to be made in the coming months. A bid for a small slice of the £530m (2015) Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) pot is also widely anticipated.