DCMS Invites Bids For £10m Rural Broadband Trial

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is inviting bids to participate in a £10 million trial of alternative superfast broadband technologies for rural areas not covered by existing government initiatives, such as Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).

The trial was first announced last December and hopes to extend superfast broadband coverage to 98 percent of the UK population, building on the £530 million BDUK programme and a separate £250 million project detailed last summer.

Suppliers can submit bids for government funding in three different categories. They can pitch to test a certain technology, to try out a new operating model, such as aggregating smaller networks into a common larger network, or to test out a financial model, such as innovative public-private funding initiatives.

£10m broadband trial

“Government’s rollout of superfast broadband is already reaching more than 10,000 homes every week but now we need to focus on the hardest to reach communities,” said culture secretary Maria Miller. “These pilots will be instrumental in helping us understand how to overcome the challenges of reaching the most remote areas of the UK, and I hope to see a wide range of suppliers coming forward with innovative proposals.”

“The aim of this fund is to help people living in very remote areas secure the benefits of superfast broadband,” added rural affairs minister Dan Rogerson. “Fast and reliable broadband coverage is crucial in building a stronger economy and fairer society for farmers and all rural businesses to be able to compete and grow.”

The number of premises which can now access superfast broadband as a direct result of government-funded initiatives is above 300,000 according to the most recent figures, with 40,000 properties added each week by this summer.

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