Are you ready?

Full fibre broadband connections offer the fastest and most reliable speeds available, and the government is committed to a vision of a full fibre Britain. As part of this commitment in March 2018, the government announced a £67m Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Businesses can claim up to £2,500 against the cost of connection either individually or as part of a group project. Residents can benefit from the scheme as part of a group project which also includes businesses, and can claim for a voucher of up to a value of £500.

Gigabit vouchers can be used by small businesses and the local communities surrounding them to contribute to the installation cost of a gigabit capable connection.

This means you can boost your voucher value by joining together with other businesses and residential customers. Once you have a group of other users in your locality your supplier may be able to pool your vouchers together to subsidise the cost of installing a connection.

There is no minimum size for a group project, but it must include at least one business. As an example, a group project could consist of 15 residents each claiming a voucher value of £500, and two businesses claiming a voucher value of £2,500 each.

One gigabit is the same as 1,000 megabits – so it’s a big leap forward in connection speeds that could benefit you and your business in the future.

One of the voucher conditions is that a minimum service of 100Mbps must be taken up by each recipient.

Find out more about the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme process here.

How do you apply?

The scheme will run until March 2021 or until all available funding has been allocated, and is only accessible through registered broadband service providers. If you are interested in receiving a voucher:

1. Go to https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk
2. Go to the relevant section of the website (Residents or Business) and check whether you are eligible for a voucher.If you are an eligible business, you can consider whether you want to apply for a voucher as an individual or as part of a group project. If you decide on a group project you will need to engage with other businesses and/or residents in your locality. Equally residents may contact local businesses to gauge interest in a group project.
3. Check whether there are suppliers in your area in the postcode search on the website.If there are no registered suppliers in your area, you can approach a supplier and encourage them to register for the scheme which is open to both national and regional suppliers. This can be done via the Suppliers section of the website.
4. Vouchers to offset the cost of an installation to your premises are issued directly to the supplier. Contact your chosen supplier that is registered on the scheme to discuss signing up to receive a gigabit capable connection.

For more information go to: https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk