The Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has made good progress this year achieving most objectives set out in its Corporate Plan 2023 to 2026, with over 81% of UK residents now having access to a gigabit-capable broadband.
Tue, 13/08/2024 - 10:15
Up to £800m in Project Gigabit funding will be awarded to Openreach to connect 312,000 rural premises across Britain.
Contracts worth £288 million have already been signed for the firm to connect nearly 97,000 homes and businesses in England and Wales.
The DSIT said talks are also already underway to agree further contracts to connect 215,800 more premises across England, Scotland and Wales.
Areas to benefit include Lancashire, north Wiltshire, south Gloucestershire, west and mid-Surrey, Staffordshire, west Berkshire and Hertfordshire, west and north Devon, and for the first time areas of Wales are included.
The Government has pitched these latest contracts as a commitment to ‘redouble its efforts to achieve full gigabit coverage by 2030.’
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “Over the past decade, the UK’s broadband rollout has clearly not happened fast enough and has overlooked too many areas, especially in Scotland and Wales.”
Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach added: “This is a British infrastructure success story. Our network already reaches more than 15 million urban and rural premises and, wherever we build, we bring the widest choice of providers for customers.
“I’m confident we can reach as many as 30 million homes by the end of the decade if the conditions remain supportive.”
