Monthly Archives: November 2014

broadband

£10,000 Broadband Voucher for businesses in Wales

The new Ultrafast Connectivity Voucher from the Welsh Governement provides grant assistance of up to £10,000 for businesses in Enterprise and Local Growth Zones throughout Wales.

The voucher provides assistance towards the capital costs of installing a broadband service capable of at least 100Mpbs.

Welsh Government will provide 100% of funding on the first £3,000, then 50% between £3,001 and £17,000 and no further funding for costs of £17,001 and above.

Vouchers are available for businesses in the following areas:

• Teifi Valley Local Growth Zone (Teifi Valley Local Growth Zone boundaries are defined by ward boundaries)
Aberporth
Llangybi
Aberteifi/Cardigan-Mwldan Aberteifi/
Llanwenog
Cardigan-Rhyd-y-Fuwch Aberteifi/
Lledrod
Cardigan-Teifi
Pen-parc
Beulah
Tregaron
Capel Dewi
Cenarth
Lampeter
Llanfihangel-ar-Arth
Llandyfriog
Llangeler
Llandysul Town
Llanybydder
Llanfihangel Ystrad
Cilgerran
Llangeitho
St. Dogmaels

• Powys Local Growth Zone (Powys Local Growth Zone boundary is defined by the county boundary of Powys)
• Haven Waterway Enterprise Zone
• Anglesey Enterprise Zone
• Deeside Enterprise Zone
• Ebbw Vale Enterprise Zone
• Snowdonia Enterprise Zone
• St Athan Enterprise Zone

* Businesses within Cardiff Central Enterprise Zone are not currently eligible to apply for the Ultrafast Connectivity Voucher (i.e. already covered by the other Connection Voucher scheme).

For more information on Ultrafast Connectivity Voucher  click here

broadband

Welsh Government Grant blocks Satellite Broadband

The Welsh Government (WG) are technology neutral when it comes to Broadband, however there is some confusion whether their Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant can be used to fund Satellite Broadband.

Broadband users who receive less than 2mpbs can apply for the ABC grant as long as the money is spent on a Broadband solution that is ‘capable of’ providing consistent download speeds of at least 24Mbps. See WG website here.

Whilst  WG want to be seen to be deploying  ‘Superfast Broadband’ of at least 24Mbps, Broadband providers operating via the KA Satellite  can only currently stretch their offering to 22Mbps.

We understand that some Satellite Broadband providers are willing to provide assurance that their service can deliver 24Mbps. However WG assert that they intend to put in place monitoring and control measures to check that providers are delivering customers with the service that they quote.

Customers can obviously purchase a Satellite Broadband solution without grant support. For the foreseeable future at least, the WG ABC will not be funding  such a solution (unless the provider is willing to put it writing that their service will deliver a stable service of at least 24Mbps).