Wales gets superfast broadband boost
More than 40,000 additional premises across Wales will gain access to superfast broadband thanks to a second phase roll out of the country's broadband initiative.
The Superfast Cymru scheme aims to connect 96 per cent of premises in Wales to superfast broadband by the end of 2016. At present, roughly 480,000 premises across Wales have benefitted from the scheme, equating to 79 per cent coverage, uSwitch reported.
The latest boost to the scheme comes as the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme,
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and BT have announced they will provide over £20 million to reach an extra 42,000 premises.
Already the Superfast Cymru project has received £205 million of public funding and has used 16,000 kilometres of cabling to connect premises across the country. Running until 2017, the next phase of the scheme will also reportedly focus on delivering ‘fibre on demand’ to the majority of businesses in Wales by the end of the summer.
Wales office minister Alun Cairns commented: “This has been a priority for the UK Government and we have made significant process. Access to faster, more reliable broadband has a significant impact on our lives – from the way we shop to the way we communicate, helping businesses to grow and compete in the global market.”
Julie James, deputy minister for skills and technology, added: “We set ourselves the challenge of bringing superfast broadband to parts of Wales where the market would simply never go and we have made extraordinary progress through Superfast Cymru.
“Faster broadband is vital for our businesses and today’s announcements are recognition of that.”
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