The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has announced the expansion of its £2m Broadband Support Initiative, which will now include areas of Wales where the best available internet download speeds remain lower than the UK governments national Universal Service Commitment (USC) of 2Mbps (Megabits per second) by 2015.

The scheme, which was launched exactly one year ago today, initially offered up to £1,000 for residents and businesses (per property) who lived in parts of Wales where only basic 512Kbps (0.5Mbps) or slower (i.e. no broadband) internet connection speeds were possible.

WAG's scheme has so far approved 800 applications and at a total cost of £600,000. That still leaves £1.4m available. It's anticipated that the move will boost a number of local community campaigns, some of which have suffered because a proportion of residents were able to receive slightly more than the 512Kbps threshold.


Residents who receive the grant could use it to help cover the expense of installing a costly Satellite broadband service, while others have banded together and worked with wireless ( Wi-Fi ) ISPs, such as the TFL Group, to make even more constructive use of the cash (i.e. building a shared solution and thus avoiding duplication).

The expansion of this scheme will no doubt come as extremely good news to those whom live in affected areas, although raising the threshold up to 2Mbps could present new problems. A significantly larger proportion of people will now be eligible and as a result the scheme might find it difficult to meet demand.

UPDATE 12:48pm

Added an official quote from the WAG.