The Welsh Government has made public last week (17th January) more details about how it intends to roll-out its eagerly awaited Next Generation Broadband Project – Superfast Cymru.
The £425m project which will be delivered by BT, aims to allow 96% of Welsh homes and businesses to have access to “world class broadband speeds” of up to 80Mbps by the end of 2015.
The funding for this project will come from several areas. The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office has already allocated £56.9 Million, while the Welsh Government has put in £58 million and a further £80 million will also come from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In addition, BT claims to be investing approximately £220 million in Welsh “fibre broadband” with most of that going towards this specific project.
Welsh Business Minister, Edwina Hart AM, announced that the project had now officially started and that a roll-out plan had been prepared which took into account local demographics and the cartography of Wales, together with the Welsh Government’s economic priorities, including the Enterprise Zones and Powys Local Growth Zones.
She told AMs that fibre broadband roll-out would start in 14 unitary authorities during 2013/14 financial year – they are Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea and Vale of Glamorgan – and that roll-out would be underway in all unitary authorities during 2014/15.
Commenting on the news, Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George said:
“I welcome the Minister’s announcement and I’m pleased that the Superfast Cymru project has now started.
“This is an extremely important programme for rural Mid Wales and I hope it will transform the lives and livelihoods of the vast majority of people in Powys.
“I believe the ‘Speed Up Broadband in Montgomeryshire’ campaign played a vital part in providing the strong evidence base required to enabled me to lobby the Business Minster to have Powys prioritised and I just want to thank again all those that took an active part in that campaign.
“However, there is still more fine detail to be obtained regarding the exact timescales for roll-out in Powys and I’m certainly keen to keep the pressure on Government until this fully understood.
“I will be attending a briefing next week (Tuesday 22nd January) in the National Assembly regarding the project and I have a personal meeting scheduled with the Director of BT in Wales, Ann Beynon, in the next few weeks and I will be using both opportunities to question the Welsh Government and BT further on the proposed plans.”
