What happened?
London has been handed £25m in broadband funding by the government to boost the rollout of super-fast connections. In total, £114m was handed out to major UK cities, with the next highest amount, £14.4m, going to a joint bid from Leeds and Bradford. The government’s goal is for cities to see speeds of 80Mbps by 2015.
How will it affect you?
If you live in London or one of the other winning cities – Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle – you should see faster broadband, sooner. The project will also pay for BT to run fibre broadband to areas it previously deemed unprofitable, so if you’re in one of those communities, you have reason to celebrate.
What do we think?
It’s difficult to understand just what the government is thinking with this London-focused investment. Larger ISPs, including BT and Virgin, are already rolling out superfast fibre connections in London and other cities, while smaller competitors are offering these lines to businesses willing to pay for upgrades. Not every part of London gets 80Mbps broadband, but many already get the same or faster. This number is increasing as infrastructure switches to fibre lines.
But, once again, the government has focused on London at the expense of rural areas, where many homes and businesses struggle to receive 2Mbps, which is the national target the government aims to hit by 2015. That £114m kitty could do a lot to boost rural speeds. With decisions like this, it’s no wonder that groups like the Country Land and Business Association have said the rural broadband plans are “very unlikely” to succeed.
