The Welsh Government (WG) will be celebrating today after it won a total of £56.9 Million to help 90% of homes and businesses in the country receive superfast broadband ISP services. The money represents a sizeable slice of the UK governments total £530m Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office budget until 2015 (rising to £830m by 2017).

The UK government aims to make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) ISP services available to 90% of "people in each local authority area" by 2015, with the last 10% being left with a minimum speed of at least 2Mbps. By contrast WAG's own Digital Wales Strategy envisages the deployment of 30Mbp+ capable services to 100% of the country's businesses by the middle of 2016 and households by 2020.



The news follows several months of uncertainty and criticism concerning the pace of superfast broadband efforts in Wales, with many beginning to fear that the country could be left behind other parts of the UK.

As with other BDUK money, the UK government anticipates that WG will adopt a match-funding approach (50/50 split with private sector investment) that could effectively double the worth of their investment.

UPDATE 13th July 2011

An alternative perspective from Wispa Limited, which helps broadband users in rural areas of Wales to gain an insight into their options for fast broadband. Wispa Limited is not to be confused with WISPA, the Welsh ISPA, which borrowed the same name.