The government run Gigabit voucher scheme is a lifeline for rural property’s that are hard to reach and not touched by commercial Full Fibre rollouts.
Shropshire Council has gone one step further by boosting the voucher funding.
Helping Rural areas get Gigabit
Some rural premises in Shropshire will be able to benefit from up to £7,000 of extra funding to access gigabit-capable broadband connections in residential or commercial environments.
With an extra £500,000, Shropshire Council has now made £2.5 million of additional funding available to ‘top-up’ the national Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme in partnership with the Government.
Gigabit Internet delivers download speeds of up to 1Gbps, the equivalent of 1,000Mbps. The higher your download speed, the faster you can download files and stream smoothly on multiple devices.
Eligible homes and businesses can receive £4,500 from the Government towards accessing a gigabit broadband network. Those premises which are currently unable to access broadband speeds of at least 30Mbps will be prioritised for additional funding of up to £2,500 per premises, funded by Shropshire Council.
How to Apply
To qualify for the national Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, groups of two or more residents or businesses must be located in a rural area and be unable to get broadband speeds of 100Mbps.
The scheme encourages collaboration between neighbours and their chosen broadband infrastructure provider to gain access to a gigabit-capable broadband service.
To check availability for a voucher, please use the postcode checker on the following webpage: https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/.
If you live in Shropshire and have a broadband query you can reach out to the Connecting Shropshire team: https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/connecting-shropshire
Its worth noting the Gigabit voucher scheme is a national scheme which means if you live in a rural area and dont have speeds of 100mbps or more then its worth applying.
Of course if you don’t live in Shropshire or another area that has top up funding you will only be able to get the standard voucher amount of up to £4,500.