Margot James, the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries, is encouraging local authorities to bid for a share of a £95 million government fund which is devoted to rolling out full-fibre connectivity across the UK.
Full-fibre broadband network by 2033
In 2017, Philip Hammond announced that over £1 billion of funding will be used by the government to drive the next generation of mobile connectivity and roll-out of full-fibre networks.
The government is making progress with the Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) Challenge Fund initiative and last month Margot James urged local authorities to get involved:
“We recently set out our ambition for a nationwide full-fibre broadband network by 2033, and initiatives like this will be instrumental in achieving that. We want to hear from any local authority interested in taking part, so we can work closely with them on their plans to help them secure funding.”
Funding allocation
The funding will be allocated to local authorities with proposals that align with the following areas:
Rural focus – Local authorities in rural areas of the UK have a strong chance of winning funding as the government wants to improve or introduce Local Full Fibre Networks delivery in hard-to-reach areas of the UK.
5G or Barrier Busting – The government wants to support projects that can tackle “obstacles to the commercial roll-out of fibre and 5G”.
Public Sector Productivity – The Local Full Fibre Networks Investment Panel also wants to support projects that are dedicated to transforming public sector services. Projects should enable public sector organisations to access new cloud-based tools.
Market Development – Projects that deliberately target the development of the full-fibre market in a particular area.
Local Authority Tenders
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