UK government sets deadline for local councils

The UK government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is well under way, with various Internet service providers working to obtain procurements for fibre deployment and broadband network upgrades. The goal of the program was to provide the UK with universal broadband access of at least 2Mbps. Another goal of BDUK was to bring next-generation broadband connections to at least 90% of Britain by the year 2015.

ISPs have been working day in and day out to roll out superfast broadband in many exchanges all over the country. According to the BDUK glossary of terms, superfast broadband is defined as speeds “having a potential headline access speed of at least 20Mb, with no upper limit.”

Many counties and areas have been complaining that the fibre deployments were either too slow or did not reach certain areas. Perhaps as a response to this, the government has announced a deadline for counties to submit their broadband plans in order to apply for funding from the program.

The Department for Media, Culture and Sport has called on local authorities to turn in their drafts for their broadband programs by February 2012. The government will be distributing funds from the £530 million Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) fund to individual councils in England to use for upgrading their respective broadband networks.

Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt said: “Superfast broadband is fundamental to our future economic success. Businesses need it to grow, the public will need it to access new services. Some local authorities will find these to be challenging targets. But I will not allow the UK to fall behind in rolling-out superfast broadband.”

The Countryside Alliance campaign group welcomed the news wholeheartedly. The group’s chief executive, Alice Bernard said: “As we saw last week, councils have been struggling to get their broadband projects moving. It is now up to the government to make sure that any further barriers to progress on implementing these schemes are removed, so that rural communities can finally get fast and reliable connections and start to bridge Britain’s digital divide.”

Source – BBC and The Register