The shift to home working in response to the Covid pandemic has been a stark reminder of the importance of high speed broadband connectivity. The Government’s ‘Project Gigabit’ may well put an end to those frozen zoom calls and family squabbles over applications left open.

Following an industry consultation at the end of last year, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has announced its plan to invest £5bn to fund gigabit connectivity for the 20% of Britain which is too remote to justify commercial investment by the private sector. A further £210m will be made available for vouchers to subsidise high speed connectivity. Telecoms providers are invited to bid for projects, with up to 510,000 premises up for grabs now in the initial procurement phase.

Whilst most of the investment will be channelled through new fibre networks, the Government recognises the role of innovative technologies, such as 5G and satellite communications, in serving the most remote areas. As an investor in OneWeb, the Government clearly has faith in the potential of satellite broadband services.

For further information, see: Government launches new £5bn ‘Project Gigabit’ - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)