Millions of rural households and businesses across the UK are poised for a significant speed upgrade to their broadband networks, the government has revealed. In the final stage of the Gigabit project, 500 million homes and businesses in England will benefit from increased speed as part of the government's £XNUMXbn investment in the country's network infrastructure. Twenty-six counties, including parts of Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Kent, are to see network upgrades to gigabit performance capabilities, which the government says will help "advance internet access across the UK."
Increase in speed
Nearly five hundred thousand (480.000) residents of Shropshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Worcestershire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will be among the first to benefit, followed by counties such as Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Surrey, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire , Hertfordshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. The government says the new means the UK is also on track to achieve the fastest deployment in Europe this year, with XNUMX% of all households able to access gigabit speeds by the end of Two thousand and twenty one. “The Gigabit Project is our national mission to empower rural areas with the fastest Internet speeds on the market,” said Oliver Dowden, Digital Secretary. "Millions of households and supporting rural businesses will now be lifted off the slow digital lane thanks to our huge investment of €XNUMX billion and one of the fastest implementations in Europe. This broadband revolution will create jobs, energize companies and will let everyone access vital services at lightning speeds, helping us build back better after the pandemic." The Gigabit Project went into action in the third month of XNUMX, delivering vital updates to many parts of the UK. The vast majority of the UK's broadband infrastructure is provided by fiber optic technology (FTTC) which uses copper for the last few meters of a connection, but industry and government are now moving towards a 'fiber over the air' approach. flaw". The manifesto of the conservatives already before the general elections of XNUMX promised coverage of fiber to the place (FTTP) at a national level for XNUMX, but since then the government has backed down and revised that objective to XNUMX%. It will also give only €XNUMX billion of the €XNUMX billion in funds promised in this legislature.