New figures show that gigabit broadband is now available for 70 per cent of homes and businesses across the UK, thanks to the Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit, connecting rural towns and villages with lightning-fast broadband speeds. It comes as work kicks off on the first major contract under the government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit - the biggest broadband roll out in British history.
Richard has welcomed the news that 64.8% of homes and businesses across the East of England will now have access to rapid and reliable internet. This represents a meteoric rise since Prime Minister Boris Johnson took office in 2019 when gigabit coverage stood at just 7 per cent. This is demonstrating levelling up in action with a total of nearly 20 million premises connected since 2019, and turbocharged progress by industry towards the government’s target of 85 per cent coverage by 2025.
In the last five months alone, one million premises have been connected to gigabit networks, a phenomenal achievement given the first million premises took more than eight years to connect. The rate at which gigabit-capable internet connections are installed has increased threefold, ensuring more homes and businesses do not have to wait to have access to the internet speeds they need.
Commenting, Richard Fuller MP who earlier this year met with Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, to press the case for better broadband capacity in North East Bedfordshire, said:
Lightning-fast broadband is vital to levelling up towns and villages across the country, but for too long hard to reach areas in the East of England have suffered from slow internet speeds.
That is why I am delighted the Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit is making process across the UK, with 20 million premises connected since 2019 and 64.8% of premises across the East of England that will benefit. This progress means businesses and organisations can tap into rapid and reliable internet, unleashing their potential, creating opportunities and driving growth across the country.
The Project Gigabit Summer Update includes details of the positive impact of the government’s broadband voucher scheme on businesses and communities.
The current £210 million government Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) provides a grant of up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband networks in communities. It enables households and businesses to club together to increase the total subsidy of a project to cover most or all of the costs for installation to eligible areas. To date, more than 110,000 premises are now able to access a gigabit-capable broadband connection thanks to this scheme.
The Summer Update also highlights the results of a recent BDUK survey of over 1,700 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that had received gigabit-capable broadband through the government’s broadband voucher schemes between 2017 and 2021. More than 80% of the SMEs surveyed reported an increase in productivity as a result of their upgraded connection, with the majority using improved connectivity to access digital tools such as cloud storage, video conferencing, high volume file data transfer and accounting services.
