One million rural homes and businesses are now connected to superfast broadband as a part of the UK government’s £1.7 billion ($2.9bn) Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project.
Culture Secretary Sajid Javid announced that the nationwide rollout programme is on track, adding up to 40,000 new connections every week to achieve the target of 95 percent of the UK accessing download speeds of 24Mbps, with remaining 5 percent – the most remote and hardest to reach areas in UK to get a minimum of 2Mbps by 2017.
Sajid Javid claimed it to be “totally transforming the way” the people live and work, adding that users can chat with family and friends using VOIP and download feature length films faster simultaneously without connection dropping down.
He added that superfast speeds boost profits in businesses with “increased sales, reduced overheads and accessing markets abroad for the first time.”
The programme will also provide around 56,000 job opportunities as well, boosting the economies of the rural areas by around £275 million per month or nearly £9 million every day in the next decade. The UK-wide roll out is said to be a key part of the long-term economic plan of the government with returns of £20 for every £1 invested.
The government also notes that the current superfast broadband coverage in UK is the highest compare to the top 5 European economies and that the country is leading the European counterparts in take-up, competitiveness and pricing.
According to the government, the focus is now on the remaining 5 percent hard to reach areas in rural areas. BT has won every subsidy contracts to install superfast broadband to these areas using the £10 million fund to be invested in pilot projects in 8 different locations, including the Isles of Scilly and the Outer Hebrides.
Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT, said that the company is making great progress, though its hard and often complex work to get fibre to rural areas. He added that BT engineers are busy connecting homes and businesses from the Hampshire to the Highlands, regardless of whatever the challenge is.
He noted that in the Outer Hebrides area, BT is laying undersea cables to reach remote villages in Wales.
