Advanced Television

UK £100m for broadband

November 29, 2011

Better broadband networks in 10 cities across the UK are being promised by the government.

UK Chancellor George Osborne announced £5 billion (€5.8bn) of spending on infrastructure including £100m for broadband networks. Coverage in London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff and will be boosted. A further six cities will be identified later.

“It means creating new superfast digital networks for companies across our country. These do not exist today. See what countries like China or Brazil are building, and you’ll also see why we risk falling behind the rest of the world,” he said.
The plan is to create a hub of super-fast cities with broadband speeds of between 80 to 100Mbps (megabits per second) and city-wide high-speed mobile connectivity.

The current average broadband speed in the UK is 6.8Mbps.

Firms including BT and Virgin will be able to bid for the money, which they can use to fill in urban ‘notspots’ or increase wi-fi coverage, a spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told the BBC.

Categories: Articles, Broadband, Business, Funding