£100 million boost given to super-fast broadband pilot scheme

The Chancellor has revealed a deployment of next generation broadband to 1.2 million people in South Yorkshire in a project costing £100 million and led by Yorkshire Forward, which follows a recent contract signing with French defence electronics company Thales.

At the moment no rural areas will be targeted by the project the pilot scheme will be rolled out to Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley.

The Budget report said “To stimulate economic activity, the Government has also approved ‘Digital Region’, a £100m project led by Yorkshire Forward, which will roll out next-generation broadband to South Yorkshire.”

Although no indications were given on commitment to super-fast broadband and he failed to offer any figures on how much the Government intends to invest the Chancellor did reiterate the plans for “broadband for all”.

During his speech Alastair Darling gave outlines of plans for extra funding from the government to help broadband coverage throughout the UK to be achieved and also hinted that the creative and digital industries would also receive a boost. The target set by the Government to provide 2Mbps coverage throughout the UK was included in his interim Digital Britain report said Lord Carter.

The £2.5 billion of public funding that has been put aside by the Government for “high skilled jobs” investment might be available for the creative industries in the UK to draw from he said.

Other regional important emerging technologies and sectors, which could include other sectors like environmental technology and biotechnology along with digital businesses, would also receive a strategic investment of £750 million “to support advanced industrial projects,” he added.

The commitment to universal broadband shown by Mr Darling was a significant step toward the delivery of fast internet access to everyone, although it was disappointing that there was little in the way of a firm commitment to funding, said analyst at Ovum, Matthew Howett.

He said “It is now certain that more money will be available to directly fund the universal service obligation mention in the Digital Britain report. It is good news for the telecoms industry and the country as a whole, but it would have been much better news if he [Darling] had put a figure on it,” he said.

The Chancellor talked about “extra funding for additional investment in extending the broadband network to virtually every community…Everyone will benefit from the digital revolution including more skills and jobs,” and said that broadband is “vitally important.”