In May 2015 the UK Government confirmed that BT would have to hand back £129m of tax payers money invested in Superfast Broadband due to the amount of customers taking up of the service
In May 2015 BT commissioned London based Regeneris Consulting to produce an updated assessment of BT’s contribution to the UK economy.
Today (November 4th 2015) BT announced the findings of the Regeneris report, which makes healthy claims around job creation and regional suppliers. But what about the progress of the Superfast Broadband roll-out in Wales?
The last independent last (published in May 2015) by Welsh Audit Office, reported that:
- 47% of targeted intervention areas could now access next generation broadband, but Wales still had the lowest levels of next generation broadband access of all the UK countries.
- The take-up of next generation broadband at these premises was 13 per cent. However, many of the more difficult-to-connect premises remain.
With more public money being spent on Superfast Cymru Extension programmes, it’s yet to be seen how many people can actually access Superfast Broadband and how many are enjoying the service.