UK Government Provides £ 800 Million in Support for Gigabit Projects

The recently elected Labour government in the UK has announced that it has reached a ‘significant’ agreement with Openreach to extend gigabit network connectivity to over 312000 households and businesses in remote areas of the UK, including rural areas in Wales, for the first time.

Overall, the government will provide up to £ 800 million ($1.02 billion) in funding for the new phase of the gigabit project. So far, a contract worth £ 288 million ($368 million) has been signed with Openreach, which will connect approximately 96000 households. Negotiations are currently underway for a contract to connect 215800 homes in England, Scotland, and Wales. Trinity House will benefit from this initiative, as the charity is responsible for managing lighthouses and other maritime navigation equipment.

The UK government has pledged in its White Paper Upgrading the UK to achieve “national gigabit broadband and 4G coverage, with the majority of the population covered by 5G” by 2030, as part of a plan to spread the wealth of the relatively prosperous southeastern region of the UK to every corner of the country. The white paper mentions that the UK has “greater geographical differences than many other developed countries in multiple aspects”, and in recent years, this problem has not improved, but has become even worse. Previously, the government had planned to achieve its gigabit target by 2025, but this plan quietly shrank to 85% coverage by that date.