UK's £5bn Gigabit Project awards first contract to connect rural areas to broadband broadband

The first major grant contract under the UK government's £5 billion ($5.9 billion) Project Gigabit program has been officially awarded, with Wessex Internet securing £6 million £7m ($7m) to connect remote properties in South West England to high-speed broadband.

In a world that has rapidly embraced remote working over the past two years, the importance of widespread superfast broadband is perhaps more pronounced than ever. People are no longer just concerned about stuttering Netflix streaming, but also about maintaining a fast connection to the virtual workplace of their work via Zoom, Slack, among other cloud apps. However, many homes and businesses, especially those in rural areas, are not adequately served by high-speed internet, putting them at a disadvantage compared to those living in cities and around other major arteries.

While the UK's major internet service providers (ISPs) already provide gigabit speed internet services to millions of people in urban areas, the provision of full fiber optic broadband to those in more remote locations is often too expensive, in terms of the cost of deploying the infrastructure compared to what they can earn in income. And that's why the UK government unveiled Project Gigabit in March 2021 - it's working to fill the gaps in those hard-to-reach places, allowing people to work from anywhere and startups to consider settle far from the usual cities.< /p>

Indeed, new figures from Thinkbroadband suggest that 70% of the UK currently has access to gigabit internet, but the government has said it plans to increase this coverage to 85% by 2025. Gigabit project will prove essential to these plans. .

In its announcement last year, the government said it was initially targeting more than a million homes and businesses, half of which would be in Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Dorset , Durham, Essex, Northumberland, South Tyneside and the Tees Valley. Wessex Internet, an ISP focused on delivering fast broadband to rural areas of Dorset, Wiltshire and South Somerset, has now been awarded £6m to connect 7,000 properties by 2025, the first home of the region to be connected under one gigabit. connection by the end of 2022.

“The benefits of better broadband connectivity cannot be underestimated and this work will mean that those living in rural areas will be able to enjoy 21st century speeds at home and at work, making their lives easier and more productive," UK Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said in a statement.

Today's announcement is expected to kick off a handful of similar deals in the coming months, with purchases worth $690 million covering half a million premises that should be announced by the end of the year.

The UK is not the only place where government grants are used to connect remote areas. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has earmarked $5 billion for rural broadband providers over the next decade.