An initiative led by Cambridgeshire County Council in partnership with Peterborough City Council, Government body BDUK and local authorities has secured £1.17 million in funding to boost broadband speeds across the county.
Connecting Cambridgeshire won the funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) just weeks after up to £3.43 million from the Government's Urban Broadband Fund was awarded to help businesses in the county get faster broadband connections.
The organisation said the two sources of funding will support the roll out of fibre optic broadband to over 90% of homes and businesses across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by the end of 2015, and that premises will be able to achieve at least 24Mbps through the deployment of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology.
Supporting scheme
Additionally, Connecting Cambridgeshire said the funding will allow it to offer support to hundreds of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) through a scheme to be launched in January 2014. It will offer match funded grants and one-off payments for eligible companies to upgrade their connections to faster broadband speeds.
SMBs can pre-register their interest from November 2013 on the Connecting Cambridgeshire website.
Darren Hill, Business Development Manager for East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: "Not only can households and businesses across our district look forward to superfast broadband, local businesses will also now be able to access additional support to maximise the benefits from the latest digital technology."
