broadband vouchers ultrafast gigabit uk full fibre
The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today tweaked the language on the information page for their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) in a number of key ways. This sees the removal of “rural” specific language and the introduction of language stating that some areas are “open for urban voucher projects“.
The GBVS usually offers grants worth up to £4,500 to help rural premises get a gigabit-capable broadband (1Gbps) ISP service installed, which is available to areas with speeds of “less than 100Mbps” – assuming there are also no near-term plans for a gigabit deployment in the same area (either via private investment or state-aid). Until now, this has been almost exclusively focused upon helping poorly served rural areas.
NOTE: The GBVS is currently being supported by an investment of £210m via the wider £5bn Project Gigabit programme. The value of the vouchers it offers can sometimes also be boosted by top-up funding from local authorities.
However, ISPreview has previously reported that BDUK were also exploring the possibility of expanding the GBVS to cater for poorly served parts of urban areas too (here), which may otherwise sit neglected as patches of poor service, typically dotted about like small islands inside major cities and towns.
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The latter problem can be caused by all sorts of challenges (e.g. high build costs, issues with securing wayleave / access and permits or road closures etc.), while state aid and competition laws often make it very difficult to use direct public funding in such areas (i.e. locations where private investment should be able to resolve without intervention).
The easiest solution to the aforementioned legal and competition dilemma has typically been to use a voucher scheme, which was tried before (‘Connection Vouchers’) and eventually morphed into today’s more rural-focused scheme. But not everybody is a fan of expanding vouchers to urban areas and some opposition MPs have criticised the idea, which is despite it first being proposed under the previous government (here).
What’s changed today?
In short, the government has today updated the GBVS scheme so that it’s no longer using rural-specific language and is also open to “urban voucher projects“. At present the urban side of this is only open to several regions, including Birmingham and the Black Country (suppliers: E-volve Solutions, Exascale, Openreach), Merseyside and Greater Manchester (suppliers: B4RN, Freedom Fibre, Openreach, TalkTalk), Greater London (suppliers: Openreach, Trooli) and the following parts of Scotland – Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Glenrothes (suppliers: Highland Broadband, Openreach).
Gigabit-Voucher-Availability-UK-Map-March-2025
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