Broadband: Wales

(asked on 11th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what (a) key dates by which key milestones will be met and (b) other metrics his Department has developed to measure progress of the UK Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme in Wales.


Answered by
Matt Warman Portrait
Matt Warman
This question was answered on 16th March 2021

In relation to gigabit coverage, at UK level key milestones and metrics include:

  • One in three UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband (38%), up from 12% in 2019.

  • By the end of 2021 more than half of the country will be connected to gigabit-capable networks.

  • We are on track to build up to an annual build rate of 4.5 million premises or more, higher than build rates in comparable countries.

As part of the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, the government has funded the following projects which are delivering gigabit connections to public sector sites in Wales:

  1. Projects with the Welsh Government (i) in the Cardiff Capital Region covering approximately 180 public sector sites and (ii) across ten local authorities covering approximately 100 rural public sector sites;

  2. A project with Denbighshire across the six local authorities in North Wales covering approximately 350 public sector sites;

  3. A project with Pembrokeshire to cover approximately 70 public sector sites.

This totals approximately 700 public sector sites to be delivered between 2019-2021.

In addition, residents and businesses in rural areas of Wales have been able to apply for vouchers under the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. As at February 2021, in Wales there are 351 connected premises worth £646,000 and a further 932 premises in the pipeline worth £1.79m. This scheme is closing on 31 March 2021 and it is proposed that a replacement scheme will continue from April 2021 as part of the UK Gigabit Programme

The government is now taking forward further work with industry to target a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage by 2025, as part of our £5 billion Gigabit programme and our 100% target. Within this, the UK government is working with the Welsh Government to develop gigabit-capable interventions in Wales. This includes exploring opportunities to utilise the current Superfast Cymru (Wales) project to extend gigabit capable coverage to premises which do not currently have superfast broadband capability, in addition to the 39,000 premises in Wales which will get gigabit capable coverage under this programme by the end of 2022.

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