Over £730k allocated to full fibre upgrade projects in North Wales

Over £730,000 of capital funding has been allocated to local full fibre upgrades across North Wales.

It is part of more than £9 million allocated to help deliver fast and reliable broadband to communities that need it across Wales.

The Welsh Government’s Local Broadband Fund, which was set-up to help local authorities and social enterprises address connectivity issues in their communities has already helped a number of projects across Wales with a further four projects now being awarded funding.

The money will provide better broadband access to communities in Cardiff, Newport, Vale of Glamorgan and North Wales.

In North Wales £736,000 capital has been provided for local full fibre upgrades.

Ambition North Wales has so far delivered over 300 upgrades to full fibre broadband at public sector sites through the UK Government’s Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) Challenge fund.

By the end of Q4 2022 a further 29 sites will be connected by the end of the project. A successful application to UK Government in 2019 secured over £8m to improve broadband connectivity at these sites.

Initially the sites had very slow broadband speeds using copper connections but were given access to ‘full fibre’ gigabit capable connectivity, effectively future proofing against future demand and meeting immediate requirements for a wide range of public services.

28 further sites currently require funding to achieve complete coverage of the intended upgrades, consisting of principally local authority and health services.

While the primary benefits associated with the upgrades will be realised by the public services and their users it is understood, from evidence of earlier delivery and insight, that wider benefits will be delivered to the communities in the vicinity of the target public sector premises.

This means homes and business in the area may also benefit from the improved broadband infrastructure potentially gaining access to full fibre broadband

Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters said: “Fast and reliable broadband is more important than ever.

“While this area is not devolved to Wales, we are taking action through our Local Broadband Fund and various other schemes to bring better connectivity to some of the hardest to reach parts of Wales.

“Good quality digital connectivity underpins everything we do digitally and is the foundation to achieving our ambitious Digital strategy for Wales.

“The fund is already delivering a real difference to communities across Wales and today I am delighted to announce further schemes that will benefit from this funding.

“Broadband is a key utility and we’ll continue to support all efforts to boost connections the length and breadth of Wales.”