Broadband roll-out is welcomed - The Evesham Observer

Broadband roll-out is welcomed

Evesham Editorial 25th Mar, 2021   0

THE £5BILLION project to bring ‘gigabit broadband’ to homes across Worcestershire has been welcomed by Evesham’s MP.

Nigel Huddleston spoke after the county was included in the second phase of the project, with work starting in June.

More than one million hard- to-reach homes and businesses will have next generation gigabit broadband built to them in the first phase of a £5billion government infrastructure project. Their available speeds will rocket to more than 1,000 megabits or one gigabit per second.

Contracts for these first areas will go to tender in the spring with spades in the ground in the first half of 2022.




In June the government expects to announce the next procurements to connect up to 640,000 premises in Norfolk, Shropshire, Suffolk, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Worcestershire.

“Whether for work, education, or socialising with family and friends, we all increasingly rely on broadband,” Mr Huddleston said.


“The government is committed to making sure we are all better connected and this investment will be particularly welcome in the more remote rural areas of Worcestershire that the broadband companies have left behind.”

“This project prioritises these places with the aim of giving people in rural areas the freedom to live and work more flexibly. A lot of my constituents will directly benefit from this investment and I’m very pleased Worcestershire has been so highly prioritised.”

Gigabit broadband is being rolled out rapidly – from one in ten households in 2019 to almost two in five today. The UK is on track for one of the fastest rollouts in Europe and for half of all households to have access to gigabit speeds by the end of this year.

The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is also being relaunched with up to £210million to give people in eligible rural areas immediate financial help to get gigabit speeds. On top of this the government is making up to £110million available to connect public sector buildings – such as GP surgeries, libraries and schools – in the hardest to reach parts of the UK with this infrastructure.

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