Everyday country folk: get set to meet the Internet -- it's great! The European Union has approved a rural broadband boost to bring the Web to areas to Britain currently starved of Internet access.
Now European officials have given le thumbs-up, councils can proceed to spending the £530m set aside for turning rural not-spots into hot spots.
"Finally getting the green light from Brussels will mean a huge boost for the British economy," said Culture secretary Maria Miller, who personally waded in to speed things along in Brussels. "Today's announcement means that we can crack on with delivering broadband plans, boosting growth and jobs around the country."
Eurocrat approval was required because the EU has a say in money spent as state aid. Local councils will also contribute funding, and the rest of the cost is chipped in by the Internet service provider that gets the contract to lay the fibre cables that will supply the Web.
So far, only BT has won contracts with councils to bring the Web to rural areas. In many cases BT has been the only applicant, and strenuously denies using that monopoly to inflate prices.
Wales and Surrey will be first to benefit, after which fibre will be laid in Cumbria, Rutland, Hereford and Gloucestershire. Other areas will follow, the plan being that by 2015, 90 per cent of the population of Britain has at least 2Mbps.
Does your area need a broadband boost? Can BT hit the 2015 target? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 5
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chaisemon 21 November, 2012 15:10
If a 4G connection can cover all the rural areas with 30mbps, wouldnt it be better to skip installing cables and investing in wireless broadband network?
shauney3 21 November, 2012 15:20
^^ I was thinking something similar...
anonymous 21 November, 2012 17:02
I live in a Rural area and have wireless broadband.
I get 12MB down & up, where as the locals on normal broadband get less than 2MB.
It costs £12/Month (so probably half the price of normal broadband when you consider line rental - We have VOIP phone to avoid BT altogether :o) )
Its FibreWiFi bu Buzzcom. www.fibrewifi.com
Covers most of Essex and now some of Suffolk.
anonymous 22 November, 2012 11:41
I've been wondering the same as the first two posters. With one tower you could cover a wide area which is helpful in rural areas where houses are spread out. Is that not more cost effective than running new cables up to every single house?
anonymous 23 November, 2012 00:01
All this push by local councils etc is way too slow. Here in Hertfordshire all that seems to happen is endless meetings and agreements to hold further talks. Council's are very good at talking but very little else. We could have had really fast wireless by now but all we have is some vague talk about "procurement". This is nonsense as we all know the only player in town is BT so why all the faffing around? No one else is interested in bidding so just hand it to BTand lets get on with it!